Naruto: The Garden
by MountainWind
Summary: A single blossom can hold generations of seedlings, but it was a solitary flower that drew her there, to the borderlands between heaven and hell.  A tale of two lovers and a curious watcher. M for language and sexual situations NaruIno
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a little three chapter story to take a break from the zaniness of _Entwined Tails._

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

**The Garden**

**By MountainWind**

Sabaku no Temari tried to sleep. She really couldn't. It was by nothing as simple as guilt, which many would-be psychologists had told her such was the case. It was because the road to Konoha was so damned _cold_.

Temari was born and bred in the hottest country on the continent. So, when she went to one of the most seasonal countries on that same continent, she preferred to go in summer. It was currently spring, early spring, at that. And _cold_.

She hissed in her sleep and pulled her body and covers into a tight ball. When a chill breeze floated over her she shuddered and growled. The sister of the Kazekage would _not_ stand for this. She grabbed her pack and pulled out her special extra blanket. She quickly wrapped it around herself and sighed happily when her body heat was stuffed back down onto her.

_That's better…_she whispered mentally. She put her head against the pillow of her bedroll. As she was about to drift off into the darkness of REM sleep, a terrible howl ripped through the air.

Her eyes snapped open and she froze. Her ninja training took over, causing her hand to find the hidden kunai holster just under the curve of her rear. Once she felt the leather wrapped metal in her hand she let her senses open and felt only the owls, the mice they were hunting, and her own escort.

The older jounin, who didn't truly enjoy Konoha like a mongoose did not enjoy a cobra, was the only one who Gaara thought was able to protect his sister. This mostly because Nuto was completely paranoid. He never left his hotel room, eating food he brought, always monitoring the homing scroll jutsu he had given Temari.

But the odd mannerisms of her escort were the farthest thing from Temari's mind. She heard the howl again, a terrible sadness filled howl. It was like the call of something or someone who had lost all hope. Who was going to end their life or end whatever had caused this painful hopelessness.

Such a cry had chilled Temari's heart once, maybe twice, before. She remembered the days Gaara would leave the village for a mission, alone much of the time, his return marked by a tremendous sand storm. The sound of it not unlike the howl she listened to now.

"Nuto," she whispered. He snorted and continued to sleep. "_Nuto_," she insisted.

"_Magic shuriken from the grassy knoll!_" he coughed sitting up. He glanced around, saw and sensed no enemy, or shurikens that disappeared after killing, and promptly went to lay down again. Until he heard the sound. He sat up again. "What's that?" he asked no one, which was a frequent thing for him.

"I don't know…"

"Maybe an animal. Just sleep and leave it be," he sighed going back to sleep.

Temari, who was now completely awake and unable to sleep no matter how warm she was, got up and grabbed her fan. "I'm going to go find it."

Nuto looked at her over his shoulder, "If it's an animal, put it out of its misery. I need to be alert once we to get Leaf-Head-Ville," Nuto's personal name for Konoha. His personal name for any Konoha Nin was, of course, Leaf-Head. He called Tsunade, but not to her face, Leaf-Head-On-Fire. He turned from her and promptly fell back to sleep.

Temari grimaced at the jounin and leapt off in the direction of the sound. She dashed through the trees of Konoha, taking note of the different species to calm herself. Temari studied botany and found looking over the kinds and types could calm her, much like Gaara's meditation. In fact during the sessions he requested she join him she made note of the types of weeds or grass around them instead of sitting in silence. Gaara usually became exasperated when she began to talk out loud, but tolerated it.

Now as she approached the epicenter of the noise she realized she knew the voice. It was someone she had heard before she had heard _this_ before. At least something like it.

She saw an opening in the trees and quickly ducked to the ground, low. The road, to Konoha, she was on was a well-hidden one only taken by Ninja to and from Suna. It had been lost for three generations, until Gaara had led his siblings to it after his defeat at the hands of Naruto.

So, anyone who was _this_ close to it either didn't know about it, or did and was hoping travelers stayed close to it. This was ANBU country. Any unauthorized person that stepped into this area was soon to find that they would be either in a jail cell or before the odd Jounin she had met during her first Chunin exam.

Temari crawled forward on her belly.

She stopped when another, less terrible scream, rocked the area around her. Her senses roared at her to _RUN_ as if whatever she was looking for was her natural predator.

It was the owl; she was the mouse.

Letting the image of whoever or whatever it was swooping down on her go, she crawled forward again. She heard another cry, this one much softer in volume and feeling. Her nose tickled her and she smelled…_Flowers?_…she thought.

She moved to the edge of the clearing and could not stop herself from gasping. Flowers. Hundreds of flowers. Some of the most beautiful she had seen. Some were from her own country; others were from such exotic places as the Land of Spring.

And not just flowers, there were also herbs and small trees and bushes. It was arranged haphazardly. Almost at random as if the person who had made this place didn't have any particular layout and had simply planted away. Her body shuddered when a second chill wind floated over her.

And with it, a final horrid howl.

Temari was knocked from her small bit reverence and she peered through the flowers, as there were no bushes or trees near her, and saw a man sitting on his knees, his hands clenched into fists, his head down.

The clouds had covered the moon so Temari could barely make him out. But she knew him. She _knew_ she knew him. She took a single crawling step forward and the form raised his head. Unruly hair fell from in front of his face back to hang from his head. He was wearing a headband, but because of the dark she could not see what village he was from.

As she was about to go closer the moon came out.

Its light shimmered down and illuminated the entire garden. Temari gasped again as the flowers opened to the light and the man took in the many scents.

Blonde hair. Whiskers on his cheeks. Blue eyes as deep and expressive as the sea.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Temari gulped. She felt entrapped by the image of the Jinchuuriki who had let out his sorrow in a series of powerful vocal blasts. He now shuddered, as if he was effected by the cold, and lowered his upper body once more. There were a few moments of silence and he stood.

He walked out of her line of sight. There was the sound of a lock being fiddled with, a plain metal one she guessed, and the sound of squeaky hinges. He came back a few minutes later with a large water can. He began to water. Whenever he would run out he made a few seals and trickled water from his mouth back into it.

_He's using his chakra to make Suiton jutsus (1) to water his plants…_Temari thought. She wondered if this was his garden. Something Naruto had made on his own. If it was it would explain the crazed arrangements, which weren't really arrangements. Despite the chaotic sectioning, as to any true gardener it would seem, each plant was healthy and lovely.

As Temari was looking at him water she decided to leave. If Naruto _had_ truly done this it was a private place. Somewhere he went to be alone. She was intruding. Fretting slightly she left, leaving no trace of herself behind, and hurried back to her camp.

If Temari had waited a few more moments she would have seen a lithe female form stroll behind Naruto and take the water can from him and water with him. Before Naruto himself put his arms around her midsection and necked her.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Temari entered the Village of Konoha just after lunch the next day. Nuto immediately went into his '_that guy looked at me funny_' mode and gathered chakra to his feet in case he would have to move faster. Despite the treaty, one actually written on paper and not purely verbal, Nuto was still Nuto, he would always be paranoid within Konoha.

Temari felt exasperated at once and told him to hurry to their hotel so they could see the Hokage, report in, and get to work. Once more the Chunin exams would be held in Konoha. Temari would have to organize the movements of their ninja and the authorization papers of the candidates.

However, Temari had a little bit of extra business as of last night. She was going to at least ask Naruto about the garden.

So she and Nuto went their separate ways. Temari decided that Nuto wouldn't be the best person to go with him. Apparently he was very nervous after the 'animal' from last night and would not be able to keep himself from calling Tsunade his little nickname. Already he had called two village men Leaf-Head-Suckers.

Temari understood the other names, but she chocked that one up to nerves.

Entering Tsunade's office was always a little intimidating to Temari. For nothing more than if the woman had been given her post a mere month earlier the attack on Konoha would have gone far differently. Temari would not be here probably.

The older Kunoichi sighed as she looked at Temari enter. Not because she didn't enjoy the presence or personality of the young woman, but because her entrance meant that there was going to be _even more_ paperwork.

"Ohayo Temari-san," Tsunade said in a little more than a groan.

"Ohayo Godaime Hokage-sama," Temari responded with a bow.

"Don't you have escort?" Tsunade asked.

"I do, Kame Nuto," Temari answered.

Tsunade's patented anger vein appeared. Temari knew that Nuto didn't keep his…ideals…in check, at least not enough to avoid the Hokage's attention. "Ah…yes," it sounded like a hiss. "Well that explains you being alone. You won't be working with Shikamaru this time. He's on an important mission." She shifted a rather large stack of paper with a single finger, something that marveled Temari, and drew out a form of some kind.

"Then who…?"

"My new apprentice. He's going to need the experience anyway," she pressed the button for her intercom. "Naruto I need you."

Temari stiffened.

No one came.

"Naruto!" Tsunade said with some force. Her vein bulged and her eye began to twitch and twitter. "UZUMAKI NARUTO GET IN HERE NOW!" she bellowed at the door, ceiling, and both walls simultaneously.

_She…she's skilled with that…_Temari thought.

The doors opened. Both women watched as Naruto entered. As he raised his hand he exploded in a puff of pink smoke that made Temari cough. Tsunade roared loud enough to blow the smoke away and threw ten Kunai around the room.

Temari dodged them by leaping behind a chair. She saw, after they hit, none were aimed at her. Five ceiling panels fell hard to the floor, two trap doors broke in half, a hidden door was nudged open, one wall slid away to reveal a small crawl space, and finally one hit the opposite chair, which promptly came apart revealing it to be a costume.

Temari stood slowly and looked at Tsunade as if she was mad. "Why did you do that?" she asked her.

"He normally sneaks in here. These are the secret passages he made to do it," Tsunade grunted.

"Naruto…_made_ all of these?"

Tsunade nodded, "Well the ones in the floor were used by the Fourth. Jiraya used the hidden doors in the wall. Naruto only really made the ones in the ceiling. If nothing else the brat is skilled in sneaking around and eavesdropping."

As Tsunade was about to continue there came a tapping sound and Temari pointed to the window. Naruto was on the edge waving in and grinning like a loon. Tsunade, who had turned and was not really visible because of her large chair, but whatever Naruto saw that Temari didn't, was _very_ scary.

Tsunade stood, opened the window, and grabbed Naruto's collar. "Join us won't you. _Naruto_?!" she hissed throwing him across the room and into the hidden crawlspace. The door closed, fast and on one of his hands. He cried with pain and swiftly wiggled out.

"Why are you so mean Tsunade-bachan?" Naruto whined, much as he had done when he was little more than thirteen, now almost twenty-one.

"Because my heir is _a complete juvenile idiot!_" she cried at him.

"_You're_ the one who didn't check the ledge," Naruto mumbled.

"_What did you say?_" she asked, in a tone that said it would be best not to answer.

Naruto bowed, "Gomen…" he replied quickly.

"What I thought," Tsunade huffed. "You'll be working with Temari to get things ready for the Chunin exam. Remember that we don't need any of the genin from our village to fill out forms just yet." She shifted a few papers around and handed Naruto a folder. "Well? GET GOING!" she screamed slamming her foot against the ground.

Temari and Naruto stood at attention, bowed, and hurried out.

As they walked into the hall Naruto laughed to himself and motioned for her to follow him. "Sorry about her. But I try to give her something to vent on once in a while. By tomorrow she'll be so angry she'll chase me around and be calmed down for another week," he grinned at her. "How's Gaara?"

"He's fine. The council is driving him crazy. He almost made a sandstorm during an elder meeting." Naruto grinned even wider and held his hand out directing her to a large office. "This is yours?"

"I _am_ the next Hokage," he said with a smile. "Take a seat and pull it up. I'll get this shit started." He sat down at a desk and opened the file. With a groan he looked at the papers and rubbed his forehead, which she saw was missing his forehead protector.

"Where's your…" she pointed.

"Huh? Oh Tsunade-bachan said I should get used to not wearing it. Plus I'm saving space for the hat," he said with his patented grin. He returned to the papers and the grin fell. "Shit." He pressed the intercom button, "Shizune-neechan?" he whined. Temari felt herself smiling.

"_Yes Naruto-san?_" an equally amused voice asked.

"I need your help. It's the 5-OP funding form," he said.

"_I'll be right there._" And she was.

Shizune walked to the desk, nodded her head to Temari, and bent over Naruto shoulder. Temari noted how Shizune went to using –kun when talking to him now. She and Naruto spoke briefly; apparently the differences between the form he was working on and another were minor.

"Thanks Shizune-neechan," Naruto replied as he hurriedly filled out the report. "Before you go," he raised his hand to her, while still working, "Could you call the ANBU commanders and ask them who will be available for detail on investigations?"

Shizune beamed, "Of course." Something told Temari she had to remind of that more than once.

"What's the investigation for?"

"It's something new starting this year for us. We're checking to see if anyone trying to enter is an agent for someone other than who they say they are. A new rule will state that all examinants must be in Konoha and the Land of Fire for the exam and only the exam. If they are there under false pretenses they'll be arrested and held until their village comes to bail them out."

"Wow…" Temari awed.

"I know it's a good plan, but a pain in the ass it diverts-"

"I meant how grownup you sound _Naruto-san_," Temari said.

Naruto looked at her and blushed, "Hey I need to know this crap okay? Leave me alone," he said in that childish voice.

"So how have you been? I didn't know you were actually accepted to become the Hokage," Temari said as she examined a form.

"I didn't have time to write to tell Gaara. And even if I did Tsunade-bachan told me not to tell anyone outside of the village."

"Why?"

He used the _Henge_ to change into Tsunade and pointed at Temari. "What if our enemies found that letter and targeted _you_ in an effort to cripple the village?" He changed back and sat down. "That's kind of what she sounds like."

To Temari it was _exactly_ what she sounded like. The Konoha-Nin was being humble. _Too_ humble.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Despite this little thought, they worked hard until the great clock in Naruto's office, a gift from Neji and Hinata, rang five o'clock loudly.

Naruto signed one final form and let the ink dry before putting it back into the folder and sliding the folder into his desk drawer. He took the files that Temari had and did the same.

"Will they be safe in there?" Temari asked.

Naruto grinned and nodded. "Special sealing technique. Come on want to get a bite to eat?" he asked.

Temari blushed a little, but only from the cold as they left the tower, and said yes. "No ramen," she insisted almost at once.

Naruto whined about how Suna people didn't realize what good food was but eventually relented. The two headed to the restaurant section of Konoha and walked to the moderate area where other ninja ate. Naruto walked in and all of a sudden three men were around him and Temari. One of them offered to take her fan, another was asking if Naruto wished to go to a smoking section seat, and the third was asking for Naruto's coat, much like Tsunade's own.

Naruto kept his coat, went to a non-smoking table, and asked (more _told_) them to allow Temari to keep her weapon. Naruto knew more than anyone what someone could feel if they were in a place without something that gave them comfort. And for a ninja, what was more comfortable than a weapon?

"What's good here?" Temari asked.

"Anything traditional. I like the red miso soup and the spiced pork. They have good rice to, they make it with oil and vegetables. It's fried," he said grinning.

Temari sighed, what was she going to do with him? "Fine I'll try it," she relented.

Their waiter appeared, bowed to Naruto and even to Temari (which surprised her greatly), and took their order. A second waiter brought a small bottle of Sake with a bowl and two pairs of saucers. One pair was heated and the other chilled. The Sake was room temperature.

"This place seems kind of high end," Temari said as she took one of the warmed glasses. Naruto poured for her and watched her sip before taking a drink himself.

"It's a nice place. I come here once a week. I get paid more than I ever did as a chunin," he said with a slight grin.

Temari rolled her eyes, "Well duh Uzumaki! What did you expect? A pay _cut_ when you became the new leader of the village?" she asked with a sardonic tone.

Naruto winced in his charming and child like way, "You don't have to be so mean…"

Temari laughed and caused a few chuckles from Naruto as well. In fact the two of them were having a good time…

Until she came.

Haruno Sakura walked into the small establishment. Temari saw her first, but didn't wave. She personally didn't see any reason to. Sakura had never been someone who Temari had gone out of her way to be around.

Something about her ever rubbed Temari the right way.

Naruto realized Sakura was in the room a second later. Temari heard his nose take in a rough _'sniiifff'_ and he turned his head just enough to glimpse at her. the humor and good nature in his eyes flashed away and was replaced by something Temari had seen many times in Gaara's eyes. But then it was gone.

Not because Naruto was happy again, but because he was squinting as when he had been a child. Temari didn't like the look. "Naruto? Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he smiled, wide, almost _too_ wide.

_He's…he's acting…_Temari thought just as she saw Sakura turn around and say something. A dark man entered. _Uchiha…Sasuke…_Temari whispered in her mind.

That explained it. Sakura had finally gotten her man. They were together. That was obvious enough by their matching clothes. Sasuke was wearing the traditional Uchiha tomoe covered short shirt and pants. Sakura's kimono and shawl also had Tomoe on it.

_Oh god…She's married him. Or is going to…_Temari was about to say something when Sakura waved at her. Temari raised her hand weakly, hoping the girl would not come closer.

But she did.

She dragged Sasuke over to the table and Naruto grinned at her, "Hey Sakura-chan," he said with enthusiasm. _False _enthusiasm.

"Hello Naruto. Hello Temari-san," Sakura bowed to Temari. Sasuke nodded to his rival and to Temari. She turned back almost immediately to Naruto, "Did you get the letter I sent to your apartment?" her voice was hopeful.

"Yeah I did. I talked to Tsunade-bachan about it. She told me if I saw you before tomorrow to tell you make an appointment. That area is still under the jurisdiction of the Military Police," Naruto explained. "She won't have to see anyone around one tomorrow so that would be a good time. Call early."

Sakura winced a little, as if what he had said was some sort of harsh curse, "Alright…I will…" she looked at her feet.

"Come on Sakura. Let's sit down before the host has a conniption," Sasuke grumbled. "See ya around dobe," he grunted to Naruto, tugging at his wife's/fiancée's arm.

"Goodbye Naruto it was good to see you," she said weakly and followed Sasuke.

Naruto waved weakly. He looked at his food, as it had just arrived, and swirled it around with his chopsticks.

"Naruto?" Temari asked softly after a few minutes.

He was silent. "I'm not hungry. Are you?" she shook her head. "Alright. Let's go," he called for the check, gave a short apology for the wasted food and gave the waiter a few extra hundred Ryou. And they left.

Walking in Konoha's nighttime air made Temari shudder. Naruto offered her his coat, and when she said no, he put it on her anyway. He insisted he didn't need it, and showed her by allowing her to touch his arms, which weren't even chilled.

"The tenant," he explained grimly tapping his belly. She nodded, knowing who he was talking about.

They reached her hotel only a few short minutes later and he led her to her room. As soon as the elevator opened Naruto was faced with Kame Nuto, glaring down at him. Nuto was a head taller than Naruto.

"Hello Leaf-Head," Nuto growled.

"Hello Sandy-Ass," Naruto retorted.

The two stared each other down before Nuto moved out of their way. Naruto grinned at him, in a very Kyuubi like way, and walked Temari to her room. Nuto followed Naruto and was only a few centimeters away from him, leaning down so whenever Naruto looked back at him they were eye-level.

Temari got fed up with it after only five feet and ordered back to his room. The conspiracy-ninja, who was older and higher ranked in almost every way than Temari, complied. But not before sending back a random quote from his own book, "Lay down with Leaf-Heads wake up with aphids!" and he was gone.

Temari, blushing now from complete embarrassment, gave Naruto his coat back and told him good night. Naruto said the same and left the building.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Temari couldn't sleep once more. She had tried to, desperately, but every time she closed her eyes she would see Naruto, on his knees blaring his voice to the sky in an effort to rid himself of some sort of terrible pain or emotional burden. She was currently sitting in one of the hotel chairs that always seemed to be on the border between perfectly comfortable and completely un-sit-able.

She had turned it to look at the window and gaze at the moon. Konoha's moon didn't have the same ethereal beauty of the moon in Suna on those rare calm nights. But the Moon was the Moon.

And it had just been obscured.

Temari furrowed her brow and opened her window. She saw someone land hard on a roof, far away, too far to see her when she had not turned on the light by her bed, and then leap off again. Temari furrowed further and looked down at herself. She was partially dressed, enough that a pair of sandals and maybe a light coat would be good enough.

She shifted her legs and arms and felt her hidden kunai pouches and leapt out of her window after the form.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The person she was following obviously knew of the hidden road. As soon as they left the village he dashed to the right and then back in his original direction with a distinct purpose. A _practiced_ purpose. _He's done this before_…Temari believed as she followed him. She wondered if he knew she was on his trail, she doubted it.

And then he fell to the ground and moved slowly, walking, and entered a small clearing. Temari saw at once, by smell more than eyesight, that the man had entered the Garden.

_Naruto_.

The man didn't fall to his knees and begin to howl, he just sighed and looked at the flowers, moving his head from left to right. Temari had dashed to the right and scuttled around to be on his front. She could make him out a little better because the moon was out, but it was still hard.

As Naruto was about to turn toward a small shed, which Temari believed to e where he kept the watering can and maybe other gardening tools, a strange sound came to her ears. When a female form came from the informal entry to the Garden, she understood it to be footsteps on leaves.

"You're here early tonight," the woman said. Her voice calm, composed, mature. It was one she had heard before, but when it was still young and different, the voice of a child. "I'm surprised you're here at all after the racket you made last night."

"I…I just needed to be with them," he motioned toward the flowers, "since they need me and won't leave."

The tone was sorrowful, a little angry.

"Sakura?" the woman asked.

"Yeah…"

"Is it _just_ her? On her own Sakura is a good girl, but when she opens her mouth or does what's on her mind…" the woman drifted off.

"Yesterday I got a letter," while this was not uncommon as of late the woman waited, "it was from Sakura, or someone who signed like her. They have so many servants at the Uchiha house now…" again she waited, "it was a request for the re-opening of the formal center within the Uchiha Compound."

"And why does that make you angry?"

Naruto turned to her, his back now to Temari, "Because she sent it directly to _me_. Requests like that go to Tsunade! I don't have the authority to reopen an area of the village closed by the Military police when a good eighty percent of their force _died_, no were _murdered_ there. She sent it to my _home_ not my office. The informality of it pisses me off!" he stomped his foot. Black soil shifted uneasily, almost afraid of him.

The woman had remained still, but now she stepped closer to him, "It's alright to be angry at her Naruto."

"I'm not angry at her!" he growled. "I'm angry at myself!"

"Why?"

"Because I…I didn't try to give myself any kind of-"

The woman took a quick step and struck Naruto hard in the shoulder, enough to make him stumble backward. "Shut up. If you're going to start babbling about stuff that _isn't_ your fault then I'll stick you with the watering and leave you."

Naruto's head was downcast. "I'm sorry."

She put her hands on his face and stroked his whiskers with her thumbs. "If that girl is so stupid she didn't even realize you were telling the truth even as a boy, then she doesn't deserve you. Let her have the angsty bastard," she said softly. She kissed Naruto gently on the lips and hugged him. Naruto returned the hug and kissed her cheek when they broke the one on their lips.

Temari felt a warm feeling wash over her. They were close, intimate. And they were lovers.

Temari let a little sigh escape her lips as subtly she watched the woman slide her hands along Naruto's back. They moved down to his shirt's end and bunched the material up. Naruto raised his hands from her and she quickly took it off. Naruto hugged her again and took hold of some zipper or clasp and undid them quickly.

Once her breasts were free, despite theri size (they looked a bit bigger than normal to Temari) she wore no bindings or bra, she crossed her arms over them in a demure manner. Naruto took hold of her wrists and moved the arms.

"You know, it's kinda funny."

"What is?" the woman asked.

"Every time I see you like this…I feel a little bit more like an idiot," he said.

Her face became pouty, angry, "Why?"

"Because I wasted so much time on her." He kissed her, hard, as her neck bent backward. One hand went to her breasts, molding it so the nipple was sticking into his palm. The other shifted her skirt up and her panties down.

She moaned into his mouth and wiggled in his grip. Naruto slowly moved their two bodies down and began to stroke her secret flesh. Temari heard the woman 'oohing' and 'aahing' and watched her thighs tighten on Naruto's hand. She did it with enough force Naruto winced and grinned down at his lover.

"I put it in the wrong place?" he kidded her.

The woman's face was illuminated better now and Temari saw her pout again, "You always do that…get me down on the ground and ravage me," she said in a playfully innocent accent.

Naruto snorted and kissed her again, moving his hand as well as he could. Slowly, softly, and gently, the woman opened her thighs. She hugged Naruto and whispered to him, too low for Temari to hear. But whatever she said caused Naruto to end his playing, and move to what both of them wanted. Naruto removed his pants and the woman shifted out of her panties and skirt.

Soon they were entangled in each other. The woman wrapped her legs around his hips and buried her face in Naruto's shoulder. Naruto himself was using one hand to stroke her rear, while the other supported their two bodies.

Temari knew she shouldn't be watching. Not only was it a private act, it was in a private _place_. This was something and somewhere Naruto had chosen to be alone, where none of the villagers or other ninja could see him at his most vulnerable.

The woman gave a particularly loud grunt and shift so she was on her side and Naruto was up, holding one of her legs.

Temari shuddered as she watched, feeling her own arousal begin to take hold. She also took note of her deeper breathing and the hard points at the peak of her breasts. She shifted a little, and made sure to be as silent as possible, and made to leave.

As she crouched down to take off, and then swoop around to head back to Konoha, there was a shattering roar and cry.

She swiveled her and saw Naruto kissing the woman fiercely. The kiss was so hard Temari wondered if he was trying to _hurt_ her. This though left her head as soon as she saw the woman take hold of Naruto's hair at the back of his head and pulled him closer to her.

She blinked, amazed at the display of animalistic passion, and watched as the woman wiggled out from under Naruto and stood up. She put her hands on her hips and watched as Naruto scratched his head.

Temari saw her raise her leg and winced when she stuck Naruto, again in the shoulder, knocking him flat.

_Well_…Temari thought, with a little bit of humor…_not _flat_. Not entirely._

The woman, Temari wished she knew her name at least, crouched down over Naruto and laid on top of him, squeezing his member between her legs. Naruto's face changed to a cross between an aroused grimace and his normal grin.

"Heya," the woman grinned back at him.

Naruto scoffed, trying to pretend having his dick tightly clamped between two slabs of muscle and desired heat didn't affect him and turned away from her (and, to her relief, Temari), "You're so weird."

She laughed and poked his chin making his head move. "You still fuck me," he said, not too angrily.

Naruto turned and looked at her, his arms limp at his sides. "What's wrong?"

She let her headrest on his chest. "I'm tired. I'm really tired Naruto." He didn't speak, listening to her as she had listened to him. "I spend all my time out in the middle of nowhere, screwing and gardening by moonlight. Maybe on a day off when my parents don't know about it I come out here and go some of the latter. Some of the former with myself if you aren't here."

"What's wrong?" he asks again.

She looked at him. "Why can't we be together in the village?"

Naruto was silent. "I can't let you do that."

Her reaction was so animated and angry she startled both Naruto and Temari. If her voice had been anything under a screech Naruto would have heard Temari gasp. "WHY NOT! WHY THE _FUCK_ NOT!" she slammed her fists repeatedly against his chest and shoulders. Her little game with her legs and his dick forgotten.

Naruto hugged her tightly. "NO! Stop touching me!" she cried, but it was far weaker than the voice she had had just a few seconds prior.

Naruto stroked his fingers than her hair and whispered to her. "Because they would hurt you."

"They wouldn't dare touch me."

"Not like you think." She looked at him. "Prices will get higher for you. There won't be anything you want. Anything you _need_. None of your money will be good enough. Their eyes will burn into you so hotly they'll scorch your _soul_. Because their eyes carry their hatred. Your family will lose its shop and home in time.

"As long as I am purely Uzumaki Naruto. When I am the Hokage. They will be unable to do it. Not a one of them, coward, drunkard, or spiteful old fart, will turn away the money or time of the Hokage's wife."

She started. Naruto grinned.

She let her head rest once more. "You're so crazy."

"I'd rather be crazy than weird like _some people_," he scoffed.

She hit him, weakly, lovingly, one final time and then kissed him.

Temari knew they were finished. She ran off as well as she could, as quietly as she could.

But she had been sniffed out, quiet literally, by Naruto's paramour (2).

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The next day (Temari had slept well by giving herself a helping hand if you can catch my meaning) the said Suna-Kunoichi stepped into the office of Uzumaki Naruto. He wasn't there, as she had been told just prior by Shizune, but would be in soon. Temari looked at the drawer with her documents in it. She had forgotten to ask Naruto how to open it when they left each other's company.

She crouched down and examined the seal as best she could. She heard voices and the door open, but her mind was so focused on the seals he didn't notice Naruto sounded a bit angry.

"You have to go see _Tsunade_," he said in a not to kind tone.

"But why can't you-"

"_Because I don't have the authority!_" he hissed at his company.

"That's bullshit Naruto!"

Temari took the time to stand up. Naruto had his back to her and was facing his…_guest_…he was standing in a subtle way that proclaimed he did _not_ want to continue talking about this. His guest was Haruno, or should I say Uchiha, Sakura.

"Sakura," Naruto said in an exasperated sigh. He went to his chair and fell into it. "The military police are under the _direct_ control of the reigning Hokage. I am her _apprentice_. I can only authorize minor payments and troop movements, deal out missions and the like. Commanding ANBU and the MPs is _not_ in my list of duties."

Sakura was wearing a kimono with a shawl over her shoulders, both wearing the Uchiha brand and Tomoe brightly. Temari wanted to sit, as she didn't feel right standing by Naruto's right hand, but Sakura was gripping her chair's back fiercely.

_I hope she doesn't break it…_Temari thought absently, knowing about her obscene strength.

"Why are _you_ asking anyway? Isn't this a question Sasuke-chan should be ranting at me about?" Naruto asked. Temari winced at the insult he dealt the Uchiha.

Sasuke bit her lower lip in anger. "Naruto. Please can you-"

"Talk. To. Tsunade. Ba. Chan," he gritted out through his clenched teeth. "I have a lot of work to do and trying to get you to understand that will only put me behind!" he grunted.

Sakura looked shocked, almost as if she had been slapped. When they had been younger he never would have spoken to her like that. He also would never have had sex with a woman in the middle of a grove of flowers. But Sakura didn't know about that.

"Why…" she squeezed the chair harder, "Why won't you at least-"

Naruto closed his eyes tightly, laid his forehead against his intertwined fingers. He slammed his hand down, hard, on his intercom.

"_Yes Naruto-san?_" Shizune's voice called.

"Uchiha-san wishes to make an appointment for Tsunade-sama. Please escort her to the front desk secretary."

"_Yes sir,_" Shizune answered sadly.

Sakura gaped at Naruto. "I told you once. I ignored the _rudeness_ of trying to ask me about office business from my _home_. I also ignored that _you_ ignored proper procedure, and common _curtosy,_ with this request." He stood, and said the next few lines softly so only Sakura and Temari would hear when Shizune came in, "I will _not_ tolerate anyone treating me with less respect than I deserve. I'm not your _bitch_ anymore. You want anything from me after this Sakura…" he leaned back and moved a piece of paper to the front of his desk. She saw '_Military Police Action Request Form_' written at the top. "…make sure to fill out the right form."

Sakura, her face red and her eyes watery, was about to say something when Shizune entered the office. "Sakura-san?" Shizune called.

Uchiha Sakura gnawed on her lip like it was the first meal she had tasted in a year, and turned from him. She was led out of the room. Naruto remained grim and silent for a few minutes after she left before falling back into his chair once more. He held his face in his hands.

"Sorry about that," he said in a muffled tone.

"It's nothing I haven't seen before. At least you weren't about to kill her with a hand made of sand," Temari scoffed.

Naruto moved his fingers to look at her with one eye. He snorted and then began to laugh. His voice rang happily through the office and dispelled the silence that would have been spawned by the entry and exit of the Uchiha mistress.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

They worked until lunch, when Shizune entered and asked Naruto for a favor.

"What do you need Shizune-neechan?"

"Would you mind going to the Yamanaka flower shop on your way back from lunch? I ordered some herbs we need to cultivate at the hospital and the damn delivery service sent them there. Tsunade-sama needs me with her during an operation on a ANBU Commander," she explained.

"So _that's_ why I got saddled with that," Naruto threw his thumb toward a large stack of funding forms.

Shizune put her hands together. "Please Naruto-kun?" she asked mimicking his whine.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Would you mind Temari?"

She shook her head, "No. I'd like to look around if we can."

"Sure. Alright Shizune-neechan, we'll get your herbs."

"Thank you Naruto-kun!" she kissed him on the cheek and he griped about it, claming he wasn't a little kid anymore. "Of course not Naruto-chan." she pinched his cheek and wiggled it.

"AAAH! Temari-neechan! Shizune's being mean to me!"

After Temari convinced Shizune to leave Naru-chan alone the two blondes headed for the flower shop of a third blonde. Naruto entered and said hello to Ino-chan.

"Well if it isn't Foxy-sama!" she bowed dramatically but smiled and leaned on the counter. Her eyebrows went up she saw Temari. "Flowers for the Wind Mistress?"

"No. We came to get Shizune-neechan's herbs. She said the mail service sent it here," Naruto explained.

"Yeah. Whenever they get a big or exotic plant order they bring it to us. Those idiots need to be reformed to actually _check_ the damn labels. Hold on while I get them from the back."

"Need any help?" Naruto called.

"No they're pretty small. Seedlings," Ino called back. when she returned she handed Naruto a medium sized cardboard box he was able to carry one handed. "Oh hey look at these I found!" Ino said as she showed Naruto a pair of yellow roses. One of them had a greenish tint at the edges of the blossom petals.

"New species?" he asked.

Ino shook her head, "No a botanist in the Land of Spring is trying to make a green rose."

"That sounds stupid," Naruto said going squint.

Ino sighed and let her head drop. "Temari-san you value science, ne?" she asked.

Temari shrugged. "Well here take these anyway, you can't see to many rare breeds like them in Suna," she said handing them to Temari.

The Suna-Nin blushed a little as she looked at the flowers. She saw they were tied with a ribbon. When Temari examined it she saw tiny kanji written on it. She looked at Ino, who only gave her a knowing smile. When Naruto called to her, as he was already outside she turned. Naruto was concerned with the box so he didn't notice that Temari was fondling the ribbon.

In kanji, written so small it was almost a series of dots, was a message from Yamanaka Ino to Sabaku no Temari. Three simple words that made the latter's head spin.

_I saw you._

* * *

A/N: Enjoy it. Two more chapters, coming soon. 

Dictionary:

1 (Suiton Jutsu): Water Element Release Tecniques

2 (paramour): Lover


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: hello all! Second chapter up. I've decide I may do a fourth chapter depending on how chapter 3 goes. Well in anycase, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

* * *

In the office Temari felt her head spinning. She didn't answer Naruto's questions, didn't even know if he was asking questions. From the way Sakura had affected him, she supposed later that he had been silent as she had been. She was thankful, because the note held more than the revelation that she had been seen.

The ribbon had held a meeting time and place, Temari wondered as she read if there had been a similar one she had given Naruto at the beginning of their rendezvous'. At five, when they had gotten off the day before, Temari asked Naruto if he was going to stay that night.

"Yeah. Tsunade-bachan's forms are always the hardest to fill out…" he trailed off as he squinted at a certain form. He threw his hands up and roared. "GODDAMN! Why can't they just _look_ at section 6-N?! Why do I have to write the _same fuckin' number three times?!_"

"I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun."

Naruto waved and as she closed the door she heard him scream something about 'fucking old men with bad eye sight and small-ass letters.'

She smiled and let a few chuckles escape, but let them drop as she headed out into Konoha, prepared to meet with Yamanaka Ino, the lover of Uzumaki Naruto.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The teashop Temari entered has a very distinct and varied history. It is the first place Kisame and Itachi of Akatsuki stopped after their limited entrance to the village. It was the place Yuhi Kurenai revealed to _her_ lover, Sarutobi Asuma, she was pregnant with his child. The small establishment also was the frequent stopping place of Team Asuma when they were still genin, and where they meet to see each other again.

These meetings are far less frequent than the ones between Ino and Naruto, by the way.

Temari didn't see the blonde she was there to meet, but decided she may be waiting for Temari to sit down. She did so at one of the benches in the open air and ordered a plate of sweet dumplings and some green tea. She had finished the first of her two sets of three round dumplings when the bench creaked with the weight of another person.

As Temari was about to turn to look at the person to see if it was Ino she blacked out.

Temari snapped awake four minutes later and rubbed her eyes. Blinking she felt something in her hand. She looked at her fist, curled around a pencil, and then down at her dango plate. Written in the napkin that had come with them was a message in the same small kanji that had brought her here.

_At midnight leave your window open._

Temari wondered lightly how she would know her hotel, and her room. Temari looked down at herself, her clothes were ruffled just as if someone (her own hand) had tried to find something. She then smacked her forehead in a gesture that said, beyond any doubt: _of course_. She had her room key, which held the Hotel's insignia, in her kimono.

Temari stood, a bit peeved that whoever had come had eaten her other set of dumplings, and went to her hotel to await whoever wanted to speak to her.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Temari had told her self she would stay awake, and of course when we tell ourselves this we fall promptly asleep the second we get any kind of comfortable, and she did. Temari, as a ninja, has trained herself to be a great warrior. And to be a great warrior is to be alert and ready.

Because of this Yamanaka Ino would have lost a good section of her face if she had not been just that much _better_ than Temari. After all, when you have sex with the strongest ninja in the village, it's best you at least be _close_ to his level.

"Hello to you too, Temari-san," she said with just the smallest hint of annoyance.

Temari blinked. She followed the sharp angles of her hidden Kunai, to her hand's much softer curves, to the strong grip of Ino's more dexterous fingers tightly holding her wrist. Ino had dodged the blade and captured her hand as it passed her cheek.

"Sorry," Temari let the kunai slide back into her sleeve and waited for Ino to let her go. When the younger blonde had done so she leaned back and sat in one of those borderline uncomfortable chairs.

Temari herself was sitting in the same chair she had sat in the night before. As the night before she was also next to the window. She noticed it was now lifted, when before it had only been slightly up. Ino had lifted it up and then entered and tried to wake her hostess.

"For someone who wanted me here you don't really know how to show it. Is that how you always act when you're woken up?"

Temari felt herself grow angry, "I didn't invite you. You took over my body using that technique of yours and invited yourself."

Ino smiled slightly, "Who left the window open? Who did so without even knowing about what I wanted to talk about?"

Temari huffed and didn't continue. She was smart enough to let a lost argument die. Ino smiled even more and drew a pack of cigarettes from her shirt. Temari narrowed her eyes, "You smoke?"

Ino sniffed and slapped the pack against her palm. With her ninja strength and speed she had done the requirement in slightly more than a second. "Yes. I picked it up from Shikamaru."

"How does Naruto like it?" Temari asked.

Ino lifted one of them to her lips and lit it. After taking a few puffs she took it out of her mouth and sent a long puff out the window. "He hates it. I can't smoke for almost a day if I want to kiss him."

"Why?" Ino tapped her stomach. "Oh…" Temari recalled Naruto had _smelled_ Sakura in the restaurant before he had seen her.

There was silence.

"Well?" Ino asked.

"What?" Temari had zoned out, almost fallen asleep again.

"Aren't you going to ask about it?"

"Yes…that is why I let you in right?" Temari replied with her own question a small, wary smile on her lips. More silence, this time Temari was thinking. "What is that place? I know it's a garden…but it's more isn't it?"

Ino let a plume of smoke escape the small part in her full lips. Her eyes, a sky blue to Naruto's ocean, flashed with the tiny illumination granted from the cig. "Yes," she whispered, the smoke coming from her mouth giving the added sound of a hiss. "That Garden…" she sighed, almost as if she was the name of her lover and not a place, "is the most beautiful and the most terrible place in the world.

"It is where he," Naruto, "lets out everything they," she threw her head in an angry gesture to the village outside, "did to him. All his rage, hatred, and despair. All of it. He made that place, or the simple beginnings of it in any case, nearly eight years ago. And still he has those emotions." She reached her hand out the window and tapped the ash away. "Anything else?"

Temari opened her mouth, and then closed it. "What…what happened?"

Ino smiled. She knew what Temari had _not_ said. What she _not _asked. _What happened that made Naruto hate Sakura. That made him love you. What happened that made you find the Garden. Why did Naruto let you in?_

Ino put out her cig in the ashtray, Temari noticed it had a filter, and took a second. "I found it, the Garden, because I'm a nosey bitch. I wanted to know why Naruto, of all people, needed such beautiful flower seedlings. What I found, was something even more beautiful."

Temari grew silent as Ino began the first of what would be several glimpses into the past. And such, time rewound to a fateful day over six years ago, to the day Yamanaka Ino found a great many secrets.

Some of which, changed her life completely.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Six years ago…Yamanaka Flower shop…

Ino was, as always, wishing she was eligible for ANBU status. Because if she was eligible to be an ANBU, she would be working like a dog, doing unneeded physical and mental training to be adapted to become a powerful killing machine.

Instead of sitting in her parent's shop, reading the same issue of Kunoichi Kast Monthly. The magazine, made by ninja females hired out by each country, was one of Ino's favorites. Mainly for the clothing, which was also battle-appropriate; mainly for the fact even with their extensive sexual tip section, no mention of it is put on the cover.

In fact the first time she had bought one, as a young girl of twelve, she had been reading happily until she realized she was learning how to properly deep throat.

_That_ was a day she wrote about in her journal.

But today, the middle of the month, she was reading the sections she normally skimped over in her initial read once it arrives on the second of every month, there is nothing new.

And nothing to do.

She sighed. It would have been bearable if it was wedding season and she had both bouquets and/or bridal wreaths to do. But it isn't.

She looked up at the door, which hadn't opened since she had walked out after opening them herself to see if anyone was there for the early run. Nothing.

Wait, a shape.

The doors slid open and a man in a dark brown uniform walked in, a medium parcel in his arms. Ino tilted her head in confusion. They didn't have any shipments of flowers due. She turned and looked at the schedule on a clipboard her mother had hanging beside the stockroom door.

_Not a single bud due until next month._ "Who is that for?" she asked a bit incredulously.

"Well, for _you_. Ain't it?" the mailman asked setting the box down in front of her counter.

"No."

"Oh…well no one else has asked for any order this big besides your parents. So I…we…"

"Decided to just give it to us when someone might _need_ these flowers?" Ino asked, letting her anger out. She was bored, tired, and now this _idiot_ had decided just because they owned a _flower shop_ that _any_ flower order was immediately, theirs.

He flustered and shifted the box with his foot. "Well…uh we…"

Ino snapped her arm and pointed to the door, "Oh shut up and get out. I'll watch it. Just be sure to tell the person you screwed over that you sent it to a place where they'll be taken care of!"

He yelped at her outburst and bowed and then left. All in a matter of seconds.

Ino huffed and put her balled fists on her hips, and glared at the box. She went around to the other side of her counter and lifted it to examine the address and name.

There was none. It had been either ripped off in delivery or in the checking process the Chunin in charge of incoming mail did. They had seen the flowers and sent them to her shop just because. It filled her heart with joy that the common man's information from abroad was controlled by people with the ability to barely add two and two and get three point nine.

She _did_ see that the sender information had been left intact. _Ichigo Hana Growers? These are high end. Specially bred. Someone spent a pretty penny. Of course…not _that _pretty a penny…_Ino thought.

She knew that Ichigo Hana Flowers had special deals on bulk packages. One or two flowers or seedlings had to be packed so delicately that it was far less expensive to order ten or fifteen. As she saw now.

Intrigued she decided to open the box and peer inside. If they were seedlings they would need a light spritzing of water. _And sunlight…_she added in her head.

She did so and opened the box, cutting it with a swift chakra scalpel. As she looked inside she saw each little seedling was encased in plastic. Clear plastic on the top, framing the small leaves and stems, black plastic around the roots and soil within them.

She removed them, three layers of four seedlings each, and set them on a rare open space on the bench in the storeroom. On the bottom was a list of the plants, what they were, how to care for them and help them grow, and finally the return form, incase the plants were damaged or did not take root.

Ino's eyes widened as she saw the name of the plants. She traced it with her fingernail, a bright green, much like the plants themselves, and whispered it. "Ice Dragon's Breath…" she sighed. She had heard of the flowers, rare ones that could live in any temperature if they had enough water.

In the winter they ate at the ice that met the ground, their roots growing to reach any water underground if the ice didn't melt, or if there was no rain or in a desert. They were indeed the dragons of the flower world. The flowers, which were big and fluffy looking, would grow in tiny clumps then become massive bursts of color that ranged from deep almost transparent blue, to a vibrant shade of purple.

Each section of flowers, four of each, had a different color. Those on top were blue. The middle ones were purple, and the bottom ones had a reddish tint. She sighed a little wondering who would want such flowers around. With these colors after one or two generations there would be a great collection of color.

_I wonder if the person who bought these will let me have one. It would only take two of each color for a small garden. And I'm sure one wouldn't hurt__…_

"Uh…Hello?" a tentative voice called from the front.

Ino stood up straight gasping. She whirled and looked at the open storeroom door. Ino's face, the look of a child who had been sneaking chocolate just minutes before dinner, dulled into one of aggravation. Why _him_ of all people to interrupt her _now_?

"Na…ru…to…" she growled. She hit him hard on the head.

"OW! WHAT THE FUCK?!" he screamed as he held the forming bump. "Why did you do that?!" he hissed.

"Because you came back here uninvited! See that sign!" she grumbled pointing at the sign just under the door's window. Naruto turned his head and looked at it, still angry. "Employee's only!" she cried.

"Well sorry for trying to find someone! I come here to get something of mine and see the box is open, but _empty_ and see this door is just open a crack! It's not like you were na…" he stopped as he saw what Ino was blocking from view with her body. "Why did you take them out?" he asked. The childish humor in his voice and face, coming from mostly the fact he was used to being hit by the blonde girl, left in a flash.

"What do you care?" Ino asked, a little more than unnerved by the fact Naruto's eyes seemed to glow.

Naruto sighed and let his arms fall to his sides. "Because they're mine Ino," he said flatly.

"W-what?" she stuttered. She couldn't believe he had just said that. Her mouth hitched a little on one side. Soon she was smiling, full blown in fact, and before she could stop herself she was laughing. "YOURS!" she screamed when she had taken a breath. She had pointed at him.

Through her flurry of laughter, and her teary eyes, she noticed Naruto was _not_ laughing. He also was not even looking a bit happy. She stopped slowly. A bit of fear (_Fear? There's no way I can be scared of _Naruto) crept into her heart, stifling her guffaws until they evened out to slight, singleton laughs that had neither humor nor form.

"Are you finished?" he asked coldly. She gulped, with her eyes a bit bigger than normal, biting her lip. "I guess you are," he walked up to her and ticked his head to the side. She moved at once, allowing him to gather the three sets of four seedlings. He took them to the front and put them into the box, closing the flaps.

He left and even though the doors opened and closed on a pneumatic system with almost no noise, the sliding sound they made seemed much harsher than normal.

_What…what just happened?_…Ino asked herself. She exited the storeroom and saw Naruto's form walking with the box until he teleported or sped off so she could not follow.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Six years ago…Yamanaka Household…Yamanaka Ino's room…

Later that night…

Ino sat in her bed, stretched out with her arms behind her head acting as a second layer to her pillow. She remembered the look on his face when he had asked her 'If she was finished.' It was frightening.

Asuma had taught her the difference kinds of anger people could feel. There was the minor anger, which bubbled to the top, that she and Sakura were known for wielding. And then there was the anger Naruto was known for. That dreadful power that left him in the grip of something greater than himself.

She shuddered.

_He…he hated me in that moment…_she thought. For some reason she _knew_ Naruto had hated her. When she had laughed at him. But how could she? She had laughed at Naruto hundreds of times before. Most of those times when he was…when he was…

When he was trying to strand on his own…

She turned her body and buried her face in the crook of her bent arms. _What is this? Is this regret? Why do I feel like I've done something wrong?_

Ino didn't know. She didn't know at all. What she did know was that the Naruto she saw, changed. She would no longer see him for what others did. She would see that anger, that _hatred_.

And she would see it for a very, very long time.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Present day…

Temari remained silent. "What…what does that have to do with…?" she trailed off.

"Why is it that Suna ninja are so calm and composed one minute, but find something they have an interest in and _boom_ they can't sit still for a second," Ino whispered, not really asking a question.

Temari flushed a little, "You didn't answer my question and I asked it first."

"I told you that to give you some background. So you can understand why I followed him. When I first saw that Garden…that place between heaven and hell…"

Her eyes grew misty and she began to tell again.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Five Years ago…Haruno Household…

It was the roof of Sakura's parent's home. Ino was with her best friend, as their rivalry had stilled somewhat (for the moment), and they were watching the moon. Neither of them knew just why they had chosen to. It was a boring activity for two young women such as them.

But neither of them had anything to do or anyone else to do it with. The moon also helped them think out their thoughts. Sakura was thinking about a certain raven-haired criminal going through an intense medical and rehabilitation exam.

Ino well, her thoughts were _not_, absolutely _not_, centered around Naruto…

_…Exactly_.

She was thinking of the Ice Dragon Breaths he had bought. She had wanted to see them, mostly in an attempt to try and apologize, but she had failed, miserably at every turn. Naruto either ignored her or acted as he always had. No one seemed to notice how Ino was brushed off almost as soon as she came within ten feet of the blonde.

He did it so subtly Ino herself didn't even realize it. Well, until he had told her flatly he didn't want her following him anymore. That day she had been walking in his wake, behind him, and had noticed the looks he got from the villagers and older ninja they saw. When Naruto had walked into an alley, she had followed him without thinking. If she had been watching his back, instead of her own feet, she would not have slammed into him and fallen back. He had helped her up and told her his message: _Stop following me around Ino. It's getting annoying and I have a lot more important things to think about. You won't get what you're looking for from me._

"I'm going to bed. You might not want to stay here all night Ino-chan," Sakura said absent mindedly as she rose and left.

Ino waved to her and stood herself and leapt over a few buildings on her way home. She was thinking about Naruto when she landed on one building, and landed hard. The shingle she had intended to be her stepping-stone to the next rooftop, but it slipped and Ino fell, face first, into the top of Inuzuka Hana's Veterinary office.

_God…dammit…_she grunted as she tried to right herself. She checked her ankle, it was twisted but the process for healing it was so simple she had begun to do it without a thought.

She finished healing and stood to test it. The leg was healed, but the fall and the instant chakra use made her dizzy. She leaned against Hana's small water tower and sat down to rest for a few seconds.

Someone landed on the other side. Ino froze and heard someone shifting their feet and hands. She let her body fall to the side and looked under the tower, through the mess of pipes, and saw a pair of tan hands. They were smooth, which made her mind run through the number of smooth handed ninja.

When an orange sleeve poked its head she knew who it was. "Coulda sworn…" he sniffed a little. "Ugh. It's starting to hurt," he grunted. He took off again and Ino saw Naruto land a few rooftops away.

_How can he jump that far?_…she asked herself. When he landed she watched him wince slightly before carrying on. A bit worried Ino decided to follow him.

Sakura hadn't said anything about Naruto being hurt or in the hospital, and in truth she didn't talk much about Naruto _at all_ anymore, so Ino had no way of knowing if he had just left the hospital like he usually does.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Same night…

As Ino followed him she noticed he was running towards the wall of the village. Her brow furrowed as she saw he was not stopping. He quickly leapt at it, stuck with chakra, then hurried up and over. Ino had been farther back to keep from being seen, but now hurried to catch up to him.

As she cleared the walking path of the walls she saw a blur of orange and Naruto was gone. She huffed. She couldn't have _lost_ him already could she?

_Yes…_a rare part of Ino spoke up…_What made you think you could catch him anyway? He's as good as Sasuke, or better. You can't even match Shikamaru when he's still lazy._

Ino snorted and leapt down as she heard the approaching footsteps of a guard. She landed softly, much better than her previous landing that started this she thought with a little grin, and took off into the forest.

After running but fifteen minutes she came to a road. Blinking she realized it was one of the secret roads only used by ninja. The only reason she was able to detail it as a road was the markings hidden in tree limbs and leaves that directed whoever came along that Konoha was south.

She decided to follow it, albeit away from the eyes of anyone who may be traveling the road. By her own reasoning this was most likely the way Naruto had chosen. She wondered a little if he had taken up a mission and was leaving late, but she remembered he was wearing only the clothes on his back.

Ino had run for about thirty minutes thinking on and off as to why Naruto had gone this way when she abruptly stopped. Anyone following her would think she had been hit by some sort of invisible attack the way she was totally inanimate.

She was at the tiny opening the trees that would lead to the Garden.

At first her legs would not move. At first her mind would not think. But slowly, her functions returned to her control and she walked toward it. The border of the Garden and the forest was like that which may divide Heaven and Hell. The forest was dark and blocked the light of the moon, but that same light seemed to divert from the forest and converge in the Garden's clearing. She stopped, a step short of entering and solidified her resolve. With a quick burst of force from her mind she was inside the Garden.

Ino gasped. He breath was stolen by the plants and they seemed to actually _rise_ to look at her. Each one was illuminated by the moon. Each one a stunning jewel in a gigantic natural and beautiful setting. She looked at the soil, which was black as darkness, and shifted it with her feet. A rich earthy aroma greeted her for it.

"My god," she whispered, "It's so beautiful."

She examined each flower, swiftly as she did not know who would be coming here, until she came to a small cluster. Her breath left her once more. This time it was replaced by that of a dragon. The twelve seedlings Naruto had bought barely a year ago were in full bloom.

She could scarcely believe they were the same flowers. They had grown into a small section of the garden, combining their natural colors into great explosions of color. There was a small set, three or four plants, which had tremendous red blossoms that slowly changed from purple to blue on the way down to the soil.

Ino reached out her hand. She subtly stroked one of the large palm sized petals and sighed a little.

"Who the hell are you!?" an angry voice growled. Ino gasped as she was pulled from her feet and tossed to the ground, skidding in the dirt to land at a big tree trunk.

She screamed when two strong arms crashed into the bark behind her head. "STOP! IT'S ME! INO!"

Naruto's face appeared to her cringing eyes and he grabbed her shoulders. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here," he hissed through clenched teeth.

"I…I followed you!" she cried, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She was _scared._ Naruto never, _never_, would have thrown her like that if they were in the village. She was afraid he would actually hurt her this time.

He backed away and stood over her as she held her arms up in defense. "Get out of here. Never come back." His voice stern, angry and heated. Ino squirmed and quickly dashed to the entryway. She turned just enough to see Naruto's back was to her. "Ino." She stopped dead and shivered, he had never said her name with such…_disdain_.

_Was Naruto even capable _of_ that?_...she thought faintly.

"Go. I never want to see you here again." She stood still, taking a wayward step back. "And if you tell anyone in the village about this place. I _will_ kill you."

With that Ino ran like hell was on her heels.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Present day…

Temari gulped. She wondered how Ino felt remembering that day. It had obviously been hard for her to admit how plainly _foolish_ she had been to enter such a place so innocently. "What…what happened then?"

"I ran home and hid under my covers like a little girl. I realized that I had seen something Naruto hid from us, and for good reason. What began in the back room of the shop ended in that Garden. I saw Naruto for what he was, something powerful…and dangerous under the right circumstances.

"Can you imagine what it felt like to believe yourself so much higher and greater than someone and then see that they were doing it more for you benefit?" she asked looking into Temari's eyes.

The Suna Blonde nodded warily remembering the first time she saw Gaara's Shukaku form. When all the nightmares of her past and her people's past became _real._

"I'm a little ahead of myself though. I obeyed him. I didn't go back for two years. I watched and waited for things to happen with him. We didn't talk. We _said_ things to each other, but there was nothing behind it. I was trying to hide from him. I…I was _ashamed_. I think that's the best word for it. I was _ashamed_ I didn't see what I saw in that grove before. It all came to a head three years ago…when Sasuke came back…"

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Three Years Ago…Late Spring…

Yamanaka Ino sat in the Konoha library and looked sadly at a book on plants she was thinking about taking home. She is not looking at it sadly because she has been unable to go to her family's shop. She is looking at it sadly because it has a very extensive article on Ice Dragon's Breath. After seeing it Ino remembered the sight she had carried from a party Kiba, who had gotten permission from his mother to use the clan house, held the previous year.

There she had seen Naruto and Sakura, sitting together. What had made it so sad for Ino was, Naruto had settled his hand on Sakura's, and she was holding his back. Ino saw the trust between them as if it was some tangible thing. Something like a scarf that intertwined the two of them.

It had been spouted by the local gossipers that the two had gone out and were seeing more of each other. What solidified these speculations for Ino was the blossom in Sakura's hair, just behind her left ear. A young Ice Dragon's Breath, deep red.

Ino had asked to leave and went straight home, ignoring her mother and father who were eating a late supper and laid face down on her bed and sobbed silently into her pillow. She felt betrayed and lost. For some reason _she_ wanted that flower behind her ear. For some reason _she_ wanted to have picked it out.

And the image from before floods her mind. The flowers soaking up both her breath and the light of the moon. The darkened room, in which she had turned on no lights, seemed to fill with that light and the smell of those flowers. She felt her tears and sadness fade as she thought of it.

_Go. I never want to see you here again._

And then it was gone, replaced by Naruto's angry face. The face that held all of his anger and hatred. And it was centered on Ino.

She hiccupped, and struggled, but eventually gave in before she cried and sobbed into her pillow for the rest of that night.

As much as she was going to probably do THIS night as well. She knew that Naruto had been seen at a few of the local jewelers. She knew what he was planning to ask Sakura. She knew how much he loved _her_.

A single tear drop fell and landed on the book. She hastily wiped her eyes and closed the book, leaving it as she dashed out of the building. Her feet took her to the large Hokage Tower, where Sakura was. She sniffled a little and tried to turn, but her legs made her move forward. Part of her had to know.

She had to know if Naruto gave her that blossom or if she had picked it out herself. The answer would most likely break Ino if it was the latter, but crying over a boy who hated your guts wasn't much better.

_Well, at least I'm able to admit that I have a thing for him…_she thought sarcastically. And so her feet moved toward the front gate and into the tower.

But she never got the chance to ask Sakura, because Sakura was talking to Naruto. She was facing Ino and Naruto was facing her. He was standing with one hand behind his back, Ino saw the little black box and how Naruto was holding it tightly. She moved back, into the shadows created by the main gate and tried her best to conceal her chakra.

She saw how Sakura was looking at Naruto and felt her heart sink. She knew that look. It was the one she would give Ino when they were girls and Sakura was too excited to listen. Ino hoped the girl would understand why Naruto wanted to talk and not…

The noon bang (1) went off loudly and Sakura's head whipped in the direction of the gate. Ino heard her chirp happily something and moved past Naruto who had begun to pull his gift out to show her, and most likely fall to one knee. Ino felt as if she was watching a stain glass portrait of the scene shatter. She saw Naruto's arm fall limply to his side.

Sakura ran past and muttered two words that made Ino feel like ice.

_Sasuke's back!_

_Oh god…please don't tell me she still…_Ino watched Sakura run by and then turned back to look at Naruto. The blonde demon container had his head down and was shaking. Ino slowly stepped into the courtyard of the tower and bit her lip. "Naruto?"

He stiffened and whirled grinning his huge fake grin. It looked like it was physically hurting him. "Hey Ino!" he said happily.

His voice also sounded cracked.

"Are…" she blushed, "Are you okay Naruto?"

"WHAT?" he called loudly and unexpectedly, "OF COURSE! Sasuke-chan is back! I'm not too happy about it but without him around no one here is worth sparring with!"

Ino frowned. "Naruto. Please, it's okay I know that you-"

He was suddenly a foot from her, leaning down so their noses were almost touching. She screamed and fell back, he had been ten meters away just a second ago.

"You know that I _what?!_" he hissed. Tears escaped his eyes beyond his control and he wiped them away angrily. "Stop following me!" and he was gone.

Ino stood there, feeling empty.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Same Year…Later that Night…

Ino sat in her bedroom, tired and sad. She had cried all day after she had returned home. Her _soul_ hurt. It hurt because she knew that _Naruto_ hurt but he didn't trust her enough to let her know it. He didn't care about her enough to even think that she wanted to try and help.

Of course maybe he had and come to the same conclusion she was reaching. What help could _Yamanaka Ino_ be to Naruto? He was already training with Tsunade almost exclusively. He was already one of the more sought after men of the village. He already had respect, and power, and focus, and a dream.

_And a broken heart…_her mind whispered. _He hides it. This isn't the first time either. And you _know _it. You've just been too blind to see it._

Ino propped herself up on her elbows and looked at the wet stains on her pillow. "I'm so stupid…" she sighed. She sat up, and set her hands on her lap. She had a choice. A very painful choice.

She knew she cared about Naruto more than she wanted to allow herself. She also knew he was in pain because the person _he_ cared about had rejected him before he had even tried to reveal his feelings.

And Ino knew where he was going to be.

Her choice had already been made for her.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

She ran the same route, along the hidden road, as she did the last time. She was amazed with herself that she remembered, considering that the most vivid part of the memory was the Garden. But it was the _sound_ that made her forget where she was, _who_ she was, that gave her a startling focus to move ahead.

A terrible howl blasted through the night air. It hit her, and shocked her heart. The emotional effect was more influenced by her state than by the noise, but it was a strong factor.

She fell to the ground, she had been running through the canopy of the forest, and shook badly. _What…what made that? It…sounded so sad…_she thought. On the heels of it…_Naruto!_

She quickly resumed her travelling, hearing one terrible cacophony after another. With each despairing cry she was willed further on, until she came to it, the Garden.

In its center, under the basking light of the moon sat Naruto. As Temari would later see him, Ino saw him. His back was to her, his head thrown back, the long wild bangs flew about wildly as he screamed in fury and sadness. He held his arms at his sides, his hands clenched painfully tight, enough to puncture his palms and cause blood to pour out of them.

Ino walked as if in a trance toward the Garden. Drawn by the sounds Naruto made not as if they were some wild beast but as if they were the musing of an ancient and profoundly skilled musician.

As soon as her feet entered his sanctum Naruto stopped calling. His movements were faster than wind and in less than half the blink of an eye he was standing before her. In his fury his jacket had come undone and she caught just a glimpse of his toned abs, and a strange mark on them, before the flaps covered him again.

"I told you never to come back here," his voice was hot, yet strong.

"I know," she responded softly. She lowered her eyes.

"So why did you come back?"

She didn't answer.

"Why did you come back Ino?!" his voice became forceful and angry. She winced and he grimaced, more at himself than her.

She looked up at him, and he saw the look in her eyes, not unlike the one in his own. "I…" she steeled herself, "I had a few questions I had to ask you."

Naruto sneered, "And what, dear Yamanaka-_sama_. Could I?" he put his fingertips on his chest, "Know that _you_ do not? What can dead last _possibly know?!_" what had started as merely sardonic became scathing and Ino winced at the way he said it.

She hiccupped and bit her lip. "At Kiba's party last year,"

"What?" he made an obnoxious gesture with his ear and hand, "What did you say Yamanaka-sama?! I don't want to mishear you!"

"At his party last year. Sakura had a blossom in her hair." Ino pointed at the Ice Dragon's breath behind him, "One of the red ones. Did," she sighed, "did you give it to her or did she pick it out?"

Naruto's eyes widened just a bit and then narrowed. He scoffed and threw his hands in the air. "That's it?! You come here, when I'd already told you not just for that?! And you all call _me_ stupid!"

"That's," she gulped when he turned his gaze on her, "That's not all."

"OH! YOU HAVE MORE!" He held out his hands as if he was going to give her some sort of gift. "THEN PLEASE! Ask away Yamanaka-sama!" he turned from her and faced the flowers his hands on his hips.

She didn't speak.

"Well? What is it?!" he barked.

A deafening silence, and then, almost as a whisper, but infinitely stronger than the first question, "…Why do you hate me?

Naruto's entire body shook. He whirled and looked at her his face one of pure bewilderment. "What?"

"Why do you hate me so much, Naruto?" she was looking to the side with her arms hanging limply at her sides.

He just stared at her. She felt naked, exposed under those bright blue orbs. After nearly an eternity she started to cry again. He wouldn't even give her that much. Sniffing and trying to hold them back, as she would try and keep one shred of dignity in his eyes, she turned away from him.

But his voice called out to her.

"I gave it to her. Sakura has never been here. And. And I don't hate you Ino."

She stopped and wiped her eyes. "Then. Then why have you been so…so _cold_. Why?"

"Because you trespassed on my soul." Her body moved of its own accord and she was forced to look at him. "This place…I made it from scratch. I put my money, my time, and all of the things I thought I had sealed away in here. In this ground, and these flowers," he motioned with one hand. "This place is my soul. Everything I am."

Ino couldn't believe what she had heard. It was profound. And sad, so sad. "Naruto," he turned his calm, now very old and tired looking, eyes to her, "I'm sorry."

They widened again. He smiled softly, faintly, before she saw a glimmer at the corners of his eyes. Ino felt her heart constrict. "Thank you Ino…thanks…" he wiped them away and put his back to her. "I'd like to be alone now…"

She looked at the ground, and scuffed her shoes in the rich black soil, "alright."

As she made to leave she heard his voice, so soft she barely realized he was talking to her, "You can come back, if you want."

And he heard _her_ say, in the same near whisper, "I think I will…"

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The Ino of present day put out her last cigarette. She wiped away some stray tears on her cheeks and took a small breath of air. "So I went back, off and on. Sakura was spending all her time with Sasuke, who at the time needed extensive medical help due to what Orochimaru had put him through. Soon he was back on his feet thanks to her and it wasn't long after that the two of them were set to get married. Naruto was elected to be the next Hokage as soon as Tsunade-sama stepped down.

"And he was fine with it. Until the day she remembered him."

"What do you mean?" Temari asked, now enrapt in the story.

"Sakura brought the invitation directly to Naruto's house. It was an invitation for him to be Sasuke's best man."

Temari winced visibly. "Did he do it?"

Ino closed her eyes, "yes. I nearly backhanded Sakura the second she told me about it. It was the worst day of my life to go to the Garden, and see him like that. He wasn't screaming as he had been you see, he was on the border between hatred and love. He hated them for what they had done to him, left his feelings by the wayside as if they weren't there, and yet he would not do anything to stop that happiness.

"Because that was what he believed was supposed to happen. It was what he _knew_ was going to happen." She opened her eyes and looked into Temari's. "So, the day of the wedding. The Uchiha household redone completely to make way for the big event. I'm behind Sakura as she stands at the alter; Naruto was wearing not only an exceptional tuxedo, but his mask as well. And it falters a bit, but no one notices. Except for me of course.

"He stands that way for the entire ceremony, and then on to the banquet. Everything, no expense spared. I don't see Naruto at all that evening, waiting to see what will happen at his toast. Being the best man and all. But when the time comes Kakashi steps up and says Naruto was called away on urgent business by Tsunade-sama, and this is believable considering only a few of us knew that he didn't want to be there at all, and because Tsunade is notorious for heavy workloads on any occasion."

"But he went to the Garden?" Temari interjected.

"Yes…" she said, her voice misty and far off. "We both did."

* * *

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll see if I can finish the third one in a more timely fashion.

Dictionary:

1 (noon bang): A cannon fired at noon in ancient japan to tell time.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hello everyone! Just to warn you: this thing is LONG. and it is COMPLICATED! Especially at the end.

Questions and Answers:

To all: The reason that this is listed as Naruto and Temari is because they are the main characters. That is what the little thing is for to list the two characters the story focuses on most. Hence why I chose to list it as Naruto and Temari. It still remains an Ino/Naru

To D-scribe: Sir, or madam, I am insulted by your 'review.' You started out as if you were going to inform me on how to write MY stories. You carried out your descriptions of my failing with a rude and very unhelpful manner. I'm sorry I made it 'painful to read' and didn't have 'the courtesy' to do things YOUR way. The next time you review any storyu take the writer's feelings in mind. You did not say anything to be helpful, you said them in a way that would agitate me.

If your goal was to get me angry, you succeeded. If your goal was to anger me enough to change my story, you failed. If your goal was to aid me by giving an actual review and help me by pointing out a small mistake, you failed miserably.

_Fuck_ you D-scribe. In the neck. I don't have to fit your mold. I also do not have to post theses stories at all. I do it for recogniton and help in my writing, not to be insulted in such a base and badly veiled manner.

I humbly request you please never review one of my stories again, or at least have the decency to get it checked by someone with a filter.

* * *

Two years ago…The night of Uchiha Sasuke's and Haruno Sakura's wedding…

Ino entered the Garden, she absently thought about the sandals and dress she had bought earlier that month. Naruto was on his knees, the special black suit he bought for the event ruined. The black soil meshed with the fabric and made him seem to be one with the ground, spawning from it along with his flowers.

"You know," he said after a long intake of breath, "I actually thought that I had a chance. I really did. Well…" he laughed bitterly, "Looks I was wrong eh Ino? Dead. Last. Wrong." He turned to look at her.

She was a bit shocked to see he wasn't crying. His eyes were like they were on the first night he had allowed her to come. Dark. Tired. And Sad.

"Naruto. She never would have been good for you. Even if Sasuke had never come back."

He turned from her and seemed to look at something. "I know. It isn't Sakura."

"Then-"

"I don't think you should come back here Ino."

Ino froze, "W-what?"

_Please don't let him think or say that. Not that. I don't want to be alone…_Ino murmured. It was no longer about the flowers, as Ino now had some _she_ had planted. The shed, which held all of Naruto's surprisingly high end gardening tools, they had built together one of the rare days both of them had the day off.

It was then she saw the real face of Naruto, calm and happy, because he was with someone who accepted him.

Someone who genuinely loved him.

It was that face, the true face of him, which she had fallen in love with. It was the face he had when he had asked to some back, openly, with her own flowers to grow.

"Naruto…why would you ask me that? Don't you see that I…?"

He smiled, but she did not see it. "Are you sure Ino? Are you sure you really love me?"

Ino furrowed her brow and took a step closer to him, "Yes."

"Then you should never come back."

Ino felt herself grow faint. It was as if she had been struck hard in the stomach. "Why," she whimpered. "WHY! Just because you feel sorry for yourself?! Because you want to mope around alone?! I WON'T ACCEPT THAT!"

"I wish…" he sighed, "I wish I could hate her." Ino's fury ebbed, only slightly, "I wish I could spit on her name. I want to be able to scream and hate her for she did! I want to make her hear the sound in my _heart_ when I see her with _him_ ogling over _him! HE BETRAYED US!_ NOT THE VILLAGE! _US! And she just takes him back without a single thought or worry!_ What about me...WHAT ABOUT WHAT I WANT?! WHAT _I FEEL_!" he slammed his hands on the ground hard enough to make the small garden shake.

"Naruto it's not that bad…" Ino said. Wished. Hoped.

Naruto looked at her with one eye, now slightly slit shaped, "Yes it is. I thought I had a chance to break away and be happy. To have something I'd wanted for a long, long time." He turned from her. "That fucking village. I sweat, bleed, and cry for them. I've given them everything. And what I didn't give they took. My family first, or any chance of a _real_ one. Then my dignity. Then my humanity. But I kept my pride. Through beatings and their fucking attempts to break me. God so many times I was nearly…" he growled and crushed a small weed with a swift slice of his hand.

"Naruto…what are you talking about?" Ino was scared. What he had described was horrible. Could the villagers, the same ones she fought (and killed, never forget the blood on your hands dear Kunoichi) for, the same ones that smiled and waved and bought flowers from her…

Could they have _hurt_ Naruto?

The blonde demon container stood. He turned to her and took a deep shuddering breath. "Ino do you know the date of the day the Fourth defeated the Demon Fox Kyuubi?"

Ino blinked, surprised, and moved her eyes from side to side, "Of course, everyone in the village does. The tenth of October."

"Do you know what my birthday is?"

Ino cringed a little. In the year she had known him she had yet to ask Naruto for the date. He didn't seem to mind, as no one else knew it either. She shook her head to answer.

"October tenth."

Ino froze. It felt as if her body stopped functioning. Her mind, however, began to work like an engine, grinding together to reflect and analyze what Naruto, had just said.

In a flash it came to her, the strange mark on his stomach.

"Naruto…did…did Yondaime put it _in_ you…?" she whimpered turning her head to look him in the eyes.

His blue orbs were glowing, two points of burning light in the gloom of the Garden. Each individual flower began to drain away the light leaving Ino with only Naruto's eyes as a beacon.

"Yes."

Ino was hit suddenly with it, the reason why Naruto lived in that rundown shack of a building, why the elders of the village glared at him with such hatred.

"Why? Why did he put it in you?"

"I don't know. And I really don't care. Whatever reason he had has become a farce. A joke. Something that has been spit and pissed on. Ever since the day I was born the village has wanted me dead, buried, forgotten. No matter what I did…it always seemed like I was never going to be happy…"

"Naruto, do you really mean that?" Ino asked, holding her hands in front of her breast.

He didn't answer.

"Do you really want me to leave?"

He turned his body to her, but kept his eyes on the ground. "It would be better if you didn't come back. People will notice. They'll hold it against you if we start meeting a lot." He moved his eyes to glance at her, saw the sadness in her face, and quickly threw his eyes back to the dirt.

"Is that what you really want?" He clenched his fists tighter. "Or what you think _I want_?"

Naruto looked to her again. The sadness was still there, but it had been clouded by something. He gulped when he saw it. It was the same thing he had forced himself to look into the mirror every time he woke up and decided to live.

The determination to continue.

At his worst he had been suicidal, but he had realized if he did that they would win. They would grin and never then forget him. And he had sworn to never be forgotten as something in the dark. He was going to live on, and show them all.

That same feeling burned in Ino's sky blue eyes.

Ocean and Sky met softly.

Ino walked to him, her held high, but her eyes down, and nibbled on her lip. "I…I want to stay here. I want to keep coming here…I want to see the flowers again," she turned her eyes to his. "I want to see you again Naruto."

His eyes threatened to turn from her, to looked somewhere else, but they lingered. "We'll still go on missions, in town and…"

She shook her head violently. "No…not that. Not the face you put on to make them think they're right. I want to see _you_ the one who made this place. Who made your soul into something tangible…something that can be held," her hand cupped a large blossom.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Why…why…" he couldn't add anymore. He felt his chest constrict, it felt heavy, and fragile at the same time. He took hold of her shoulders, his fingers and hands shaking ever so slightly. He had suspected it, but because of his own pain he had ignored it, hoped it would go away, but it had not.

At least, he hoped it had not.

"Tell me why Ino."

She smiled. Slowly, with almost no hurrying at all, she kissed him softly on the lips. "Because I love you Uzumaki Naruto."

The blonde gaped at her. Tears brimmed his eyes, and spilled over them. His face trembled, on the verge of releasing everything within him.

But he didn't. He hugged her to him and pressed his face into her hair, to capture her scent.

"I love you too, Ino…"

That night, Yamanaka Ino and Uzumaki Naruto slept in the garden. They did not make love. They barely touched, but they did not need to. There would be time to give into the body later for them, the present, was for the soul.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Temari felt her own tears drip from her chin and wiped them away with no recognition for the action. "That's beautiful…"

Ino smiled, "Not really." Temari blinked. "You ever slept on dirt in nothing but a bridesmaid's dress and high heels? Try waking up, even to that Garden, and not be stiff. I had more kinks in my spine than Orochimaru's 'love dens.'" Ino emphasized this by cracking her back in her chair. "But Naruto knew a few good message techniques so I was ready to head home in less than an hour."

Temari, who was a little flustered about her next question took a short breath, "Did…you two…"

"Did we ever have sex there? Or did we _start_ there?" Temari nodded with a visible, yet defiant, blush. Ino laughed, at first snickering before letting out a belt of full blown laughter. "No. Our first time was after I gave Naruto some specialty Ramen for his birthday. I went over after he had just gotten back from a tough mission so all he had done was showered and jumped in bed." Ino's face turned red and she appeared to drool. "well he gave me a little kiss and…as he was laying on his bed I jumped him and we had sex." Temari gaped at her. "What?"

"Well…every other part of your relationship is so…well romantic…and that's kind of anticlimactic."

Ino smiled once more, "That's because it was only the first time we had sex. Not the first time we made love." Temari raised an eyebrow. Ino did not elaborate. She stood up and stretched. There was a dull light on the horizon. "I'd better go."

"Aren't you going to tell me about it?"

"Why? Are you that much of a pervert?" Temari huffed. "I'm sorry Temari-san, but that is private. The other things are the little stories couples always tell. But that night…it's not going to ever see the light of day. A diamond that precious may just burn up…do you understand?" Ino asked, her smile slightly whimsical.

She nodded, "Yes, I think I do."

"Good. I'll be on a mission from tomorrow to maybe a month from now, so if you go the Garden there's a good chance you won't see Naruto before midnight, and since you're with him during the day you'll be able to tell when he needs to go there. Good morning Tamari-san."

And with that, Yamanaka Ino leapt out of the window. Temari watched her jump off toward her home and sighed, leaning back in the border-line comfortable chair.

"Well…that was an interesting night…" she sighed before her eyelids closed over her deep green orbs.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The same day Temari walked stiffly into Naruto's office to find the blond face down in his paper work. Tsunade was beside him looking over the papers while sipping some tea. "Ohayo Temari-san," she mumbled as she lifted Naruto's head to get a sheet of paper and then let it go. Temari winced at the sound made by his forehead connecting with the desk.

He didn't stir.

"He's fine," Tsunade quipped as she looked over the form. When she read a few lines, squinting a little, she smiled and patted his head. "Tell him when he wakes up he's a good boy. Well," she stood and stretched, not only her arms but her extensive and tremendous cleavage, and groaned. "I'd better get to work. Wake him up in about a half hour." She nodded to the younger female blonde and left, wiggling her hips as she went in a provocative manner.

Temari turned back and looked at the sleeping Naruto. His face was softly lit by the morning sun and Temari had to admit he looked extremely peaceful.

She smiled and let him sleep. The resulting awakening happened just after lunch when he smelled a large bowl of ramen, courtesy of Shizune, who knew of his plight. The three of them ate together and all was calm.

And so the light bathed them.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Ten days later…Noon…just after the Bang…

"I _hate_ that fucking cannon," Naruto grunted.

Temari giggled, although the reason he did hate it was not very funny, it did brighten her face to see such an obvious emotion on his face.

Naruto himself was more tired than angry. A few more ninja had come in with the need for dangerous operations, and because of it Tsunade had given Naruto slightly more responsibility. He was beginning to see a pattern along with his mentor. Some of these, caused by simple wounds in battle, were obviously caused by some strange poison, or worse, a jutsu that could be taught to mere grunts.

Temari had been told some of this when it was late and she wanted to help Naruto work.

The doors to his office burst open and a very haggard looking Tsunade stalked inside. "UP! MOVE! FOLLOW!" she bellowed.

The two blondes were kicked out of the stupor and did as she demanded.

The two younger ninja looked at each other and noticed Tsunade was either throwing her hips out because she was drunk, or tired. But that didn't matter. Naruto was watching her hips because he was male, Temari because she couldn't believe a woman could be shaped like Tsunade was a still be so strong.

Women in Suna usually ended up with grotesquely placed muscles.

But that's a story for another day and sexual persuasion…

All three blondes entered Tsunade's office and the eldest of them closed the door, hard enough to make it reverberate in its frame, and pressed a hidden switch in the wall. One of the secret doors Temari had first seen opened and Tsunade ducked into it. She turned back, her eyes glaring daggers at them, and motioned for them to follow.

Naruto did so without question and Temari sighed, continuing after the duo.

When they reached their destination Temari gaped.

Naruto took a seat at a small table and set up a cup with two small dice in it. He noticed the Suna-Kunoichi, "You okay Temari?" he asked.

"The Sake…it's…it's…so much…" she said pointing to a huge barrel that was taller than Naruto. Tsunade was currently filling three bottles for them. She set them down on the table and then pulled out several handfuls of coins and dropped them next to her bottle.

"Ready to lose?" she grunted to Naruto, who was already shaking the cup.

"HAH!" Naruto called happily, "You may need to keep that, don't you need a new Hip Tsunade-BAA-chan?" he asked.

"Suck your pacifier Gaki," Tsunade grunted in response and pushed two small coins forward. "Cho."

"You two…come down here to drink…and gamble…during _work_ hours?" Temari accused of them.

"Temari-san," Tsunade said, before cursing. It was Han. "do you know how much I hate my elders? I want to strangle them every day. And they never seem to die. I wish, and pray, and hope that one day Homura and Kotaru just curl up and _DIE_ like the insects they are."

"What did they do _today_ to cause this Tsunade?" Naruto dropped the –bachan. For now.

"They come into MY hospital. Enter MY operating room while I'm working on one of MY ANBU and THEY demand I take away some of Naruto's responsibilities. Maybe someone should tell those old dirty motherfuckers Naruto wouldn't have as many responsibilities if they got off their asses and did more than organize missions! TEMARI!"

"YES MA'AM!" Temari called back.

"GAMBLE! _DRINK_!" Tsunade held up the girl's bottle for emphasis.

Temari obeyed.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Shizune crashed the doors to the gambling den just as Tsunade was about to strangle Naruto for cheating. "TSUNADE-SAMA!"

"WHAT?!" the Fifth screamed as she cut off the circulation of Naruto's blood to his brain.

"An entire ANBU squad has been compromised! All four members have been hit with that jutsu and their organs are deteriorating! We need you at once!"

Tsunade's brow furrowed and she looked at Naruto. The comedy of their little interaction was gone. Naruto checked his Bachan for any signs of anti-sobriety and used a healing technique she had developed to speed up the breakdown of the toxin.

"Who is the commander?"

"Nyosai."

Naruto froze. His entire body was rigid. He turned his head to Shizune. "Nyosai?" she nodded. "The _entire_ squad?"

Again she nodded.

Naruto dashed past her, nearly shoving Shizune into the wall. Tsunade and Temari watched as the next Hokage flew off. "Who is on that squad?" Tsunade asked.

"Uh…" Shizune remembered quickly, "Yosumai Momo, Hyuuga Hasuki, and Yamanaka Ino."

Temari's blood ran cold.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The Hospital that cared for ANBU and other ninja was located close to the third hidden gate of Konoha. This way no injured ninja would be stuck at the main gate with civilians, who as a rule never have injuries as bad as some ninja.

Now, a certain blonde was tearing across the rooftops of Konoha toward said hospital. Those who saw him gave him a wide berth; Konoha may be full of bigoted fools, but not even the most foolish stands between an injured she-wolf and her mate.

Or would vixen be more appropriate?

Despite it, they let Naruto be, his rage was tangible, as was his emotional duress. He would let no one stand in his way.

He slammed against the doors, causing them to crack. The receptionist nurse put her fingertips to the arm of her glasses and adjusted them angrily. "Uzumaki-sama! You know those doors slide-"

Naruto was in front of her, leaning over her like a beast. "Yamanaka Ino. Where is she?"

The nurse gulped and quickly checked her computer. "Third floor. Room 17."

"Arigato Komugi-san." Naruto vanished and slammed open the doors to the stairs barreling up them like a mad man.

As he reached the appropriate floor he stopped at the door, his hand clenched around the cold metal of the handle. He took several steadying breaths. Tsunade had told him rage, sadness, and anger never helped the wounded. It only made them worse. The bedside manner must be content and calm at all times.

With his emotions now in check, as much as Naruto could in his case, he slowly opened the door and stepped foot onto the floor. He passed by an ANBU guard who nodded to him. He nodded back and entered the critical care unit which held Rooms 10-35. As he stalked, head high and arms swinging in his determined manner, he read each numbers off in his head.

_10. 11. 12…13…14…15…16…_he stopped at 17 and looked at it. His eyes scanned the frame and he noticed the name plate that had been slid in place either just prior or after its assigning.

_Yamanaka Ino. _

The man who would become Rokudaime Hokage pushed open the door.

"Naruto?"

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Haruno Sakura had been given more responsibility. At one point she had merely been Tsunade's apprentice and her assistant on non lethal or urgent surgeries. Now, she commanded the entire staff of the Konoha Medic Ninja corps and was in charge of the wing that now housed the ninja recovering and suffering from the odd jutsu.

Today when she had left her home and gone to work she had not known she would soon be sitting at the side of her best friend, holding her hand and hoping she would live. The scope of the problem had encompass most of Ino's body.

Her liver, one valve of her heart, and one lung were beginning to fail and decay while the rest of her was still alive.

The only reason she was alive now was because of a strong jutsu scroll Sakura had mastered. It slowed the metabolism, in essence slowing the decay as well.

Yamanaka Ino now appeared to be sleeping, while her actual state was close to that of a coma.

Sakura now sat, looking at her friend. The first person to really see _her_ was dying. There was almost nothing she herself could do. She could heal the decay, but she didn't know how to cure or stop it. Only Tsunade had the experience and knowledge to tell which of the three afflicted organs was the host of the jutsu and was the only one who could remove it while Ino's body was in its current sleep state.

The rooms were dark and cut off from light so not to irritate any sleeping patients. Each room held two beds and the most advanced medical equipment on both sides. The room had only Ino's bed, and Ino in it.

Sakura's head lifted as she heard the door open and saw someone she did not expect.

"Naruto?"

"Hello Sakura."

Sakura furrowed her brow, Naruto noticed it had a few early wrinkles, "what are you doing here? Do you have a message from Tsunade?"

Naruto gave her a sideways glare, "No. I don't have a _message_ from Tsunade," he spat.

"Then what are you-"

"Quiet…" Naruto said softly. He took Ino's other hand and tested her pulse. "You used a variation of the Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu (1)?" Naruto asked as he moved around to the end of her bed to check her chart. He flipped through the pages.

"Yes," she glared at him as he continued to flip. "It's a scroll based jutsu so we only need a little bit of chakra to recharge it. Why are _you here_, Naruto?"

Naruto clicked his tongue against his teeth. "I'm here because-"

"I sent him to get a preliminary view of the patients. Is it as bad as we were told Naruto?"

The demon container nodded, Temari, who had accompanied Tsunade and Shizune inside, noticed Naruto, who was now facing Tsunade and away from Sakura, was barely holding in his emotions.

Sakura, who glared slightly at Temari, scoffed. "Trying to act all high and mighty eh Naruto. You _are_ just a messenger."

"Sakura enough. Let me see her," Tsunade ordered moving to Ino's side. Naruto watched, his eyes unreadable. Temari moved to Naruto's side and put a hand on his higher shoulder. He looked at her and gave a thin smile, then returned his eyes to Tsunade.

The older medic nin moved her hands over Ino's body, stopping at the afflicted areas before moving on again. She narrowed her eyes and pushed her fingertips into Ino's belly the woman sighed and took in breath.

"I thought so…" Tsunade straightened up and cracked her back by pushing on it with her hands. "The jutsu hit her stomach. It's taken root inside of her and moving through her bloodstream. It's so advanced its being digested by her body and spreading with the nutrients she gets from normal food." Tsunade tapped her chin.

"So? Can't you just give her a transplant?" Naruto asked, even Sakura heard the bit of distress in her voice.

"Naruto," Tsunade began, but was cut off by Sakura.

"It is completely insane to transplant her stomach Naruto. There is almost no precedence for it. To do that we would have to sever and then reconnect more nerves and veins than any one surgeon can keep track of. There's also the fact that if the infection is based in her stomach it may have spread to her intestines, colon or bladder. If that has happened…there is no chance for her."

Naruto whipped his entire body around and growled at Sakura, low and deadly, "Don't. Don't say things like that. Tsunade-sama can heal her. You can do it right, Tsunade?" he turned to the elder ninja.

Tsunade's face was grim. "She's right Naruto."

"THEN STOP TALKING!" he roared. "We have time. The jutsu has slowed down her metabolism to a standstill! You have time to do the transplant!"

"If only it was her stomach. Naruto we'd have to remove the liver and heart first. Both would take far too much time. By making sure she doesn't die _during_ the operation on her stomach we ensure she dies _before_ the operation by the way of her entire body being infected."

Naruto's shoulders hitched. "…Can't…" he wiped his eyes harshly on his sleeve. "Can't you just…use the healing palm…thing?!" he hiccupped. Salty tears fell hotly from his eyes and he began to grit his teeth to hold back his sobs.

"No Naruto. There is no way to use the Shōsen no Jutsu (2) to heal such extensive-"

Naruto let out a howl of rage and stomped his foot hard on the tile floor so hard it cracked. "SHUT THE FUCK UP SAKURA! I DON'T GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY!" he roared in her face. He dashed to Tsunade and grabbed her shoulders, tears tumbled down his face openly and he shook slightly, "Please Tsunade…you have to help her…I'll do whatever I need to, to help her." His head dropped and he fell to his knees, bowing before Tsunade. "Please Tsunade. Try. For me."

Tsunade, who had been static through all of Naruto's shifts in emotion, and let her arms hang at her side. "Anything?"

Naruto lifted his head and nodded. "Yes."

"There is one jutsu. And _only_ one. It requires so much chakra that merely activating it would equal the capacity of any Chunin in our forces. Do you understand Naruto?"

The blonde demon container nodded his head. "Yes. I'll do anything to help her…" he glanced at the sleeping Ino and began to hitch again, preparing to cry, "Anything…"

"Tsunade-sama what is-"

"Shut up Sakura." Sakura did as she was ordered. "It will take three days to prepare. If you want Ino to stay alive that long I suggest you stay on standby to recharge her sleeping seal. I'll instruct you how to use the technique as the preparations are finished. I won't see either of you until then," Tsunade turned from Naruto and Sakura and Temari and went to the door. "You'll be alone in this Naruto; all the other medics will be focused on the others that have been infected. I'll send for you when everything is ready."

Shizune bowed to them and gave Naruto a wan smile.

And with those words, Tsunade and Shizune left.

Naruto stood, slowly, and walked toward the far end of the room where he grabbed a chair and dragged it to Ino's side, across from Sakura. "Give me some time alone with her."

"What?! She's my patient and if you think I'm going to let-"

"Get out," he whispered. Those words carried so much weight and power Sakura felt her bones vibrate with it. She stood, slowly, and adjusted the doctor's coat she had on.

"If anything-"

"Go."

Sakura busied herself with something in her pockets and left. Temari gave Naruto a comforting squeeze on his shoulder and followed her. When they were outside Sakura closed the door and huffed. "Who does he think he is? Treating me like that?"

Temari scoffed and shook her head.

"What was that? Do you have something to say to me? Temari-_san_?!"

Temari looked her straight in the eye and deadpanned, "You're an asshole Haruno."

Sakura gaped at her, barely being able to think of a response before Temari turned and left, leaving the confused woman in her wake. Just as Temari exited the section of the hospital Sakura cried back to her, in a cracked and wavering voice, "It's Uchiha now!...Uchiha…"

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Two days later…Konoha Hospital…Third Floor…

Temari looked at Nuto. He was _freaking out_. He was in the middle of highly sensitive Leaf-Head territory. And he did _not_ enjoy it. "We're in their _hospital_ Temari-sama!" he hissed through clenched teeth to try and keep people from reading his lips.

"Silence dammit," Temari grunted waving him off. "Just go eat some morphine or something while I visit Naruto."

"Why do you care about the Leaf-Head-On-Fire-chan so much?"

"I think I saw a Nue (3) outside the window," Temari hinted softly.

"WHAT?! HERE?! That would make sense…considering what they do to people! I'll need to find the cloud and get some arrows! I'll see you at 2:00 tomorrow morning!" he cried and vanished in a flurry of sand.

_God dammit…_Temari sighed mentally. She shook her head and entered the ward. She walked by each room, subconsciously counting the steps between doors, a trick Kankuro had taught her in case she was ever blinded and needed to escape.

She normally found this comforting, but right now it seemed like a countdown. For the last two days she had rested in her hotel room, trying to write a letter to Gaara about how he didn't have to worry about Naruto.

She couldn't do it because she knew that Gaara would _never_ worry about Naruto. It was hard to believe the first person to righteously beat your ass like he did could ever be beaten by anything, let alone himself.

She counted her fifteenth step from door number 16 and stopped. With a sigh she knocked on the door. "Who is it?" came from behind the door. Naruto sounded expectant.

"It's Temari."

There was some silence. "Alright come in."

Temari opened the door and closed it by using her weight against it. She leaned back into the door.

Naruto had his back to her and anyone who would enter. Tactically that wasn't very smart for him, but if anything came in after Ino they would have to get through Naruto, and what was in _him,_ first.

"How are you Temari?" he asked. It was hard to hear him. His head was down and he was concentrating on Ino.

"I wanted to ask you about something," she said.

"What?" he held up his head and turned to look at her.

Temari felt her chest contract as she lost her breath. Naruto had a look of true despair. Yet there was still strength in him. It shined through even the fear of loss, he fear that he would be alone again.

In that dark, windowless room, where no sunlight could reach, where the darkness of death loomed over both Naruto and Ino, where there was a chance one or both could lose their lives, Naruto gave off a light. It was a beacon of hope and determination that gave the chance of life for both of them.

And it was more beautiful than any flower. Any Garden.

Temari shook her head to clear it and looked into his eyes, which had a startlingly calm light. "I saw you…" she nodded to the unconscious form, "and Ino in the Garden…" she didn't have to add the 'having sex' at least she hoped she didn't.

He blinked and raised an eyebrow. She was surprised he was not surprised, "I know."

"What? How?" Temari asked.

Naruto tapped his nose. "That's why I used the clone when we saw each other in Tsunade's office. I smelled you from behind the door and thought you may be an enemy who had seen me at the Garden and decided to make sure by distracting you and Tsunade.

"So," he had looked off into space in remembrance, now he returned his scrutiny to her, "What did you want to know?"

Temari looked at the floor and then back at him, "Ino told me about the Garden. Everything. Most of it really. She left out something I thought I should ask about."

Naruto adjusted the chair so his body was facing the far wall. He leaned back and smiled his odd fox's grin, "So Temari-sama what knowledge can this little Kitsune grant you?"

"Smart ass," Temari sighed happily. "Ino said…something about the two of you making love…"

Naruto's eyes widened and his eyebrows rose. "Ah…that…" he grinned as he remembered. He closed his eyes and actually smiled. "Do you know what the difference between making love and sex is Temari?" She shook her head. "Sex is physical. A guy gets hard. A girl wet. Those are physical reactions and can happen anytime. But making love is when you push your souls together. When you take the person in your arms and know you want them there, you want them to be happy.

"When Ino and I first had sex it was awkward, I was driven more by…" he grimaced and rubbed his belly, "_urges_ and Ino was driven by the fact I'm a sexy beast with no shirt on." Naruto chuckled.

"She said that night would never see the light of day."

His grin widened, "Then this room is the perfect place to tell that story isn't it?"

"Yes. It is…"

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

One year ago…The Garden…

The Garden. Light in the nightly gloom of Konoha's vast forest. In its center stood the master of the domain. Uzumaki Naruto. He is staring at something. Something small and frail and dying. He knows it is dying because it has been dying for the last eight years. He can see it more clearly now than the first night he found it.

He knelt down to one knee, not worrying about his pants this time; he's in his gardening clothes. Gently, with slow subtle movements many of his compatriots would never believe he could make, he stroked the petals of the ragged and rather pathetic flower. The one that had started everything.

He had never told Ino about this one. He never had to. She had never asked. He supposed she would sooner or later. And he would tell her…

But there was something about it that he sort of, kinda, hoped he didn't have to tell. It was a story as sad and pathetic as the flower itself.

So he wasn't too keen on revealing it to Ino.

_Speaking of which_…he thought.

He turned his head to the side and gazed at the collections of Ice Dragon's Breath. It had been hard cultivating them. Especially when he didn't want the base colors for more than two seasons. But his work had paid off. He moved the fronts, bred for their small size to create a very basic yet lovely cascade effect, and looked at one flower he had been making since Ino had come to the Garden.

Naruto realized he had been mean to her, done to her what _they_ (how he referenced any who had put him down or wounded him in his life while in the Garden.) had done to him. So he had grown it as an apology.

Finding out if he even _could_ grow it was one thing. Konoha had books on the flowers but they didn't have _specific _ enough books. He had to order, at a hefty price by the way, a compendium collection of articles and findings on the flowers just to learn that the one he wanted was a genetic anomaly that occurred in .00002 of any garden with more than fifty-five ice dragons.

Basically: it's impossible to find one let alone buy one.

So Naruto calculated how much it would take. By much I mean he calculated time, flower growth rate, flower number, possibility of contamination by unwanted genes, and how much cow poop he would need.

Naruto thought his head would just go _POP_ and he would fall over with his work unfinished.

Yet…

He had not. The flower he had worked for two years had finished growing. It stood proudly, just short enough to not be noticed when Ino watered them and just dark enough so when she pruned and preened she never saw it.

He let out a small contented sigh and stood. He turned to the shed where they kept their tools and took out the small trowel which would dig up the plant and prepare it for the journey to Ino's new apartment.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Same Year…Konoha…Retail District

Naruto knew the back alleys and side streets of Konoha better than even the thieves of the village. So it was fairly easy for the Gardener to deliver his special gift with no one seeing him.

Of course there was also the fact Konoha is dead at 10:30 in the retail district and it had just rang twelve. This was where Ino had bought her new apartment so she would be close to her parents' home.

But not _too_ close.

Naruto poked his head out of the ally he was hiding in to check and see if Ino was there, he held the flowerpot to his chest and stroked the flower's closed bulb steadily. His ears pricked to the sound of people coming. He dashed back into the alley and pressed himself against the wall.

"Come on would it be so bad?" a male voice asked.

The scent of flowers and earth. _Oh no…_

"Don't you have anything better to do than bug me?"

Naruto gritted his teeth, bearing them slightly…_Ino-chan…_

The sounds of their footsteps and their voices drew close until Naruto heard them stop at where he estimated her stoop was located. "You keep saying no. Do you have a secret boyfriend? One no one knows about?"

Naruto tensed up.

"Why do you care so much anyway? I said no and that's it."

"I just want to know if you have a boyfriend. Is that so bad? It's a very simple question. 'Yes' or 'No,' in fact. So…do you have a boyfriend?"

Ino had taken out her keys to open her door and Naruto heard the individual keys still.

"N-no not really…"

_No?! What the hell am I?!_

_Not her boyfriend…and you know it._

"But there is-"

"Is what? I'm just asking for one date Ino-san, one chance."

"Why are you so persistent?" Ino retorted.

"Because you're very beautiful. You obviously don't realize how lucky the guy who gets you is going to be. So can you come tonight?"

"You say that like I've said yes!"

"Okay, so you have no boyfriend, no missions, and no training due because Nyosai makes us train together. So what are you going to do?"

Naruto leaned in, wishing he could risk looking around the corner.

"Fine. I don't have anything to do tonight. We can meet at five is that fine?"

"Yes! Thank you Ino-san!"

"Go Hasuki. It's late and I'm tired."

"I'll see you later today at five!"

And Naruto heard him running away. He leaned against the wall again and slid to the ground. He let the pot drop between his legs. The bulb jostled a little and fell to face him. It opened under his chin and caught his tears.

_What the hell was I thinking…_

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Naruto knew about love. It was something that had to be screamed out or whispered. It had to be said loudly or softly. But love was fragile. It needed light and it needed water. It was like a flower itself.

And if it kept in the dark, shuttered and pushed away from the window sill, it wilted and fell until it died. Oh it could be brought back. But it would never be as it was.

And Naruto knew that.

But the reason he _had_ shuttered it and hidden his flower was because no flower survived if it was struck down. Or stomped on.

Which _they_ would do to her if _they_ ever found out.

So he understood why Ino had said yes. How could she tell the truth without breaking a promise he had asked of her. The threat he had delivered after her first entry to the Garden had been replaced by the humble request to keep it a secret. Ino had agreed.

Naruto put his hands in his face as he sat in his apartment. He gazed at the flower from between his fingers and sighed. What could he ask of Ino in that case? Did he have any claim to her when the only thing they did was sex? No. It was purely physical. Yes they cared about each other, but the culmination of the feelings had been so far something primal and basic.

Loneliness and darkness spurred them onto continuing the act.

And it was an act. All of it. He couldn't believe he had been so stupid as to think Ino would stay with him.

When she wasn't even _with__ him._

Naruto sighed. He looked at his clock. It was half past five. He groaned as he stood, as he had been sitting in the perfect _angst _position (4) all day. He took the flower. A bright yellow Ice Dragon's Breath. Ino's favorite color.

He took it to her apartment and snuck into her home and left it in the center of her kitchen table. He looked solemnly at the lone stalk and bud, and left.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

That night…The Garden…

Uzumaki Naruto sat cross-legged in his Garden. He gazed softly at the dying rose. To the untrained eye they would see only one pathetic and easily rid of flower among the others. But to Naruto, and anyone who had been around him long enough, they would see the other flowers, all of them from the Ice Dragon's Breath to orchids.

He had been running from the villagers. They were drunk, or something, he really didn't care. Trapped between them and the wall he used a smoke bomb and dashed through a crack he had found earlier that month. It had begun raining, one of their country's, for lack of a better word, temperamental storm.

He had run for hours, getting soaked and scratched by rain and bramble branches respectively. Before he knew it he was tired, hungry, and feeling like death cooled from a night in the freezer. For the first time in his, at this point, short life Naruto felt like sitting in the mud and dying.

He fell to his knees from weakness and then splattered face first into a collection of grassy weeds and mud.

_Y'know…this could be it. I'll die…no one will care. They won't even look for me. Unless they want to mess up my body. But what's left _to _mess up?...I don't want to think about that right now…I'll just go ahead and die here._

_I'm so…damn…tired…believe it…_

And so the blonde closed his eyes.

The rain wasn't hitting his face. Only his eyes, as he had turned his head, but he was still blocked from the rain. He opened them, blinking at a random drop that fell into his left eye. When he looked up, rolling onto his back, he saw three big roses. They were drooping over him, their huge blossoms blocking him from the rain as it pelted all four of them.

He shifted his position and sat on his knees, bending down to look at them. He had fallen in the mud and still felt the rain, for a few minutes after he fell. So the plants had not been hanging the whole time.

"They stayed up…even through this," he pulled his head up and gazed at the violently black clouds. He didn't know how long it took him to succumb to the cold and rain but he knew it _had_ been raining for over an hour already.

And these plants had endured it. From their size they had endured dozens of storms like this one as well. When even what gave them life threatened to squash them they stood, retaining their strength.

Their determination.

That night, amid thunder, water, and fury, Uzumaki Naruto had been reforged. He was not as weak as he had been, because he now had an outlet, something to put not only his anger and hatred into, but also his love. Something that would summon forth his inner peace.

Two of the three had withered as Naruto built his Garden, the first died after the two wing sections which framed them bloomed and took root. The second died after Ino began coming frequently.

The older Naruto, the one who had grown as strong, yet also as fragile, as the rose before him stroked its petals.

"Well, I'm not completely alone," he sighed.

"You're not alone at all,"

Naruto spun, placing his hand on the handle of his trowel. It wouldn't serve as an adequate weapon for anyone but a villager, but if worse came to worse the Rasengan was always within reach. He didn't need either.

It was Ino.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked. It couldn't be later than seven, eight at the most.

"I left the date early. When my security scrolls sent me a message saying I'd been broken into I thought it was prudent to check it out."

Naruto felt sweat collect on his forehead and temples. He forgot Ino's father had taught her how to receive psychic messages from scrolls. This made it increasingly hard to _not_ get caught by her.

"And when I went home I found a pot full of these," she reached up and touched her hair. Naruto saw the flower in it and blushed. He didn't even realize that the Ice Dragon's Breath and her hair were the exact same color.

Naruto realized his subconscious was a _bitch_ sometimes. Or perhaps a Vixen?

"Thank you Naruto. They're beautiful."

"I…I grew them for you," he stated dumbly.

Whether Ino wanted to be a smart ass and say 'I know' or not, she didn't. She walked to him and sat down, clearing the ground so she could sit on her calves in the traditional style.

"You were listening weren't you?"

He nodded. "Yeah…I was gonna surprise you."

"I'm sorry."

Naruto smiled sadly, "You don't need to say you're sorry Ino-chan. It's the truth. We aren't boy friend and girlfriend. We're-"

"But I love you!" she said urgently, leaning in and grabbing his empty hand in both of hers.

Naruto looked at this image. The three hands, entwined and clasped.

"Here."

"What?" Ino's face, already strained before, now became slightly confused.

"Here. Everything we do to show how much we love each other is done _here_. Never outside this place, never in any place people can see us. And its because I can't let them know about you."

Ino looked at the ground. Her hands began to tremble slightly. "We've been together in your house…" she blushed, "my house."

Naruto dropped the trowel and took her hands. "You love me? Really? Knowing there's a demon in me? Knowing if I do exceed all those who came before me as Hokage you and any children we may have will be tormented until you die?"

Ino looked him in the eyes.

"Yes."

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

"And then?" Temari asked, rigid.

Naruto gave her a wide foxy grin. "I suggest Make-Out Tactics chapter five for _complete_ details of what happened."

Temari blushed.

Naruto turned his head to Ino and gazed at her, "When it was over, as I looked down at her sleeping, she was covered in dirt and leaves and grass…" he smiled and brushed a stray lock from her forehead. "I knew no matter what I would still love her. I would marry her. And unlike Sakura…she would do the same. She would love me for the rest of her life…"

He leaned back and closed his eyes. "That is why I'm going to give everything that is mine. Even the power that Kitsune-teme (5) gives me. All of it…"

He stood and walked to a small tray that held a pitcher of water and some glasses, "even if it means my life."

Temari looked at the floor, there was nothing left to be said.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Uchiha Haruno Sakura let her hand fall from the door handle. Her brow was marked by wrinkles caused by worry. Her white doctor's coat, clean and crisp thanks to a nameless servant at her new home, ruffled as the hand, searching for her pen to mark off Ino's name on her check list of patients, fell out her pocket and hung limply by her side.

She gulped.

_And unlike Sakura, she would do the same._

That was what Naruto believed.

That was what he believed about _her_.

And he was right.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The Suna blonde stared at the dying rose. In her hand a watering can filled with cool water from a well just beyond the reaches of the Garden's borders. She surmised Naruto had dug it for Ino who couldn't just refill hers with chakra created water. Looking at the rose she realized what it was.

It was Naruto's pain.

It and its siblings had all grown from the pain of Naruto's life. The first had died when he had grown the Garden, when he had found a _safe_ place.

The second had died when Ino entered there and became a part of his life, when he had found true companionship.

This one, it would die when Naruto and Ino were together again. And it would die in a few hours.

Temari believed this with every fiber of her cynical heart. Even if she lifted her boot, and crushed it again and again and again, it would not die. It would hold onto life and cling, drawing all it could from the pain Ino's wounded body and lack of life was causing Naruto.

Temari closed her eyes and took a long breath.

"Naruto…"

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

One hour until the implementation…

"The seals drawn on your arms will take in the chakra you release. Remember they serve as the main direction for the release of all the chakra. Think of them as extra routes for it to travel," Tsunade explained as she read from a large and very old looking tome. "Once the seals glow red you'll have enough. You'll charge the chakra into your finger tips and strike at the marked places on Ino's body. Hold your fingers there until the mark glows blue. Remember that."

"My marks red, hers blue. Opposites. Right," Naruto responded as Shizune and another medic nin drew the seals on Naruto's bare arms and chest. A swirl was drawn over his heart and from there the marks radiated outward. They converged on his shoulders where they then cascaded down in three lines to his hands, went over each finger and ended in a swirl in his palm. His index and middle fingers were completely covered in ink.

He was sitting on an examination bed on the same floor as Ino while Tsunade went over the ritual with him. Ino had been moved to the same Room Hyuuga Neji had been healed in after the failed attempt to return Sasuke. She was being watched over by Sakura who was also administering the seals on her friend's body.

"What order do I hit them in?" Naruto asked.

"Heart, then liver, then forehead, then stomach, then pelvic mound, then left thigh. All with the right hand. With the left, her right shoulder, left cheek, THEN her right cheek, and finally her heart again. Hold your fingers on the heart for the second time until the seal glows purple."

"What happens then?" he asked checking a symbol Shizune was copying onto his wrist.

"The ink will shift to where the source of her infection is. At that point Sakura will release the sleeping jutsu and you will send all the remaining chakra you have into that spot," Tsunade repeated from the book closing it and laying on her lap.

"Why do we have to release the sleeping jutsu?"

"Because the technique you're using will rely on Ino's current metabolism. If it is slowed to a standstill by the jutsu then the second technique will be slowed as well, and the chakras you expend on her will disperse. There's also a chance the chakra you send into her stomach to quell the infection may just release the sleep jutsu and do nothing to her infection at all!" the older Kunoichi explained.

Naruto took a deep breath, "Alright." He quickly began to memorize the order he had to strike the seals in.

Tsunade stood from the chair she had been in and made sure to heft the tome under one arm, "I'm going ahead to see if the seals on Ino's body are finished. If they are we're going ahead. Unless you need more time?"

"No. I've memorized every seal I need to make and every mark to hit and when. I'll do it perfectly."

Tsunade smiled and nodded. She turned to leave.

"Tsunade-baachan." She looked back at Naruto. He was resting his hands on the mat covering the table. He held his arms out from his body as to not smudge the markings. "Tell Sakura to keep her head in there. I don't want to fail because of her."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "Fine. I'll tell her that."

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Naruto stopped at the door to the room in which he would attempt to save the life of the woman he loved. He looked to the left. "Uzumaki-sama?" one of his ANBU guards asked.

Temari came around the corner. In her hands was a pot. In the pot were four yellow Ice Dragon's Breath. "I got them from her house," the desert born blonde smiled, "For when she wakes up."

"Thank you Temari-chan," and Naruto pushed the door open and entered.

He grimaced. It smelled like nothing. The no-smell of disinfectant and cleaners. He hated it. But at least he could smell Ino, and see her. She was at the center of the room with Sakura sitting on a small cushion beside her. Temari was inspecting her body, and several shuriken shaped ink marks on her bare body.

Naruto felt a flush creep into his cheeks as he realized Ino was naked.

Completely. He sighed and shook his head. He wondered if it was necessary for her to be in the nude for the procedure, and resigned to remember Tsunade could be as perverted, if not more, than Ero-Sannin. "Is everything ready?" he called to the two wake women.

Tsunade stood, cracking her back as she did it, and nodded, "Yes. Anytime. Only you and Sakura will be here, your guards will remain outside for Ino's privacy. If…when she wakes we have gowns for her so she can be taken to her room." Tsunade walked to the doors to leave. She would have put a hand on Naruto's shoulder if it didn't mean ruining the work of Shizune and causing an hour delay. "Good luck brat."

"Thanks old woman," he snipped back happily.

Tsunade left the room. Sakura kept her eyes on the ground. There were only two people to look at, and they were both topless. Sakura didn't want to look at Naruto because she was married. And she didn't want to look at Ino because she was embarrassed, not just about the difference in her bust size either.

"Remember, once the ink moves into one big swirl that's when you release the sleeping jutsu," Naruto reminded Sakura as he took his place at Ino's head. He sat on his knees and clapped his hands together. "Here I go…"

And he began the series of four hundred and nineteen hand forms.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Tsunade was walking back to the critical care ward when she noticed an occupied room's door was open. By procedure all such rooms were locked and _kept_ locked until assigned. She peeked inside and saw Temari looking out the window.

"Temari-san?" she asked entering the room fully. "What are you doing in here?"

"Just…waiting," she explained.

"It will be fine. Naruto's-"

The chakra they felt landed on them like an Iron curtain. It suppressed everything, even the feeling of the air conditioners on their skin.

"Going to do fine…"

Temari nodded. Because her back was to Tsunade, the elder of the two never did see the plants Temari was holding in her lap.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The surge of energies around her was like a natural event. A typhoon or a hurricane. Or something in equal parts power and ferocity. Uchiha Haruno Sakura was at the center of it, or in truth half a meter to the right of it.

Naruto had gathered the equivalent of the villagers, the students _and_ teachers of the academy and half the participants of the next Chunin exams in chakra and was now forcing it into the body of his lover. Sakura was trying to keep up with him, but the intensity of his chakra had made filling the different seals with power far quicker than Sakura would have believed possible.

In less than ten minutes Naruto had complete all the hand signs, filled all six lengths of symbols on his arms and chest with chakra and had completely engulfed all but one of the seals on Ino's body with more than enough chakra. He now raised his left hand and jabbed it into Ino's heart. The seal at once began to darken, until it was a deep bruise like purple.

"NOW!" Naruto bellowed.

Sakura drew out the scroll that had induced Ino's slumber and bit her thumb. In one swift sweep of both arms she marked the entire length with her sacrament and rolled it shut. "KAI!" she called as she clapped her hands to Ino's breast bone, under her neck, with the scroll between them.

As the marks converged over Ino's stomach she gasped and arched her back. Naruto focused everything he had into his right hand. As he did Sakura noticed Ino was grimacing. _The pain from her organs…_she thought. She held Ino down by way of her shoulders.

Naruto growled, he knew what Sankuru was doing but because she was leaning over Ino she was blocking him from delivering the last bit of chakra. He dashed around so he was at Ino's feet and sat on her legs. She cried out, not only from her won pain but from the amount of foreign chakra ramming through her bloodstream.

_SHITSUME NO KAI (6)!_

He clapped his hand to Ino's belly and the shockwave of chakra hit both him and Sakura. Tsunade hadn't told him about this. He roared as he was pushed away from her and forced his fingers into the floor to steady his hold and keep his flesh in contact with hers.

But Sakura hadn't been able to keep her hold on Ino who was now screaming and writhing under him. "_Naruto! Oh god it hurts! Help me Naruto!"_ she screeched while clawing at her face and hair.

Naruto cried out as he was blown back by the release of his own power. He collided with the far wall and then tumbled to the ground, coughing up some blood and mucous mix. He wiped his mouth and crawled, barely able to move his arms, to Ino.

"Ino-chan. Ino-chan! Answer me!" he whispered, his voice wavering, as he held her head. She groaned, her throat dry from not using it and her sudden bouts of yelling.

Ino turned her head to look at him. "I'm…naked," she croaked.

He grinned and laughed. Tears rimmed his eyes, he didn't both wiping them away, "Yeah…you are."

"What's with that look?" Ino asked as she tried to move.

Naruto stopped her and sat up, "You looked really sexy with the seals on you," he said with his trademark grin.

"Pervert…" Ino giggled. As she was about to laugh she suddenly coughed. Naruto's browed furrowed as she kept coughing. She curled up and fell onto her side before letting a thick goop made of blood and spittle shoot out of her mouth.

"INO-CHAN!"

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

Tsunade looked at the report Shizune had given her. Sakura had been there to look things over. It was clear what was going to happen to the pink haired medic, and after Shizune's review of Yamanaka Ino, it was definite.

She was going to die.

Naruto had done the jutsu perfectly. His power had been enough to heal her body of rot and decay, repairing her organs and stopping the virus like jutsu from spreading. However it did not destroy the source of the jutsu. The damned thing was still in Ino's stomach.

The worst part was, Naruto's chakra _had_ entered her stomach, and had burned the lining. Ino now suffered from two ulcers that were only agitated by the decay caused by the original virus. Now, no matter how many ulcers they healed, more would open speeding the decay.

There was no way to stop it from killing her in time.

"Can't we put her to sleep again?"

"No. Even if we put her body to a standstill the infection may be active while _she_ isn't. It's taken complete root now. We…we don't have anything that can save her."

The three women, Shizune, Tsunade and Sakura, all fell silent. Only the faint ticks of the round faced clock on the far wall marked the passage of time. "Has anyone told Naruto?" Sakura asked after a very uncomfortable silence.

"No."

"Then-"

"I will," Tsunade broke in. "It will be small but at least then I'll be able to ask what he'll want to suggest for the funeral arrangements." _And I can say I'm sorry…_she added mentally.

Tsunade left her two apprentices and stalked down the halls toward Yamanaka Ino's room. As she walked she began to copy counting the number of steps between doors. It was something she had learned from Sandaime.

She also began to look back and remember the when she first realized Naruto had a lover, someone who could help him and love him; in the ways that she could not. The attempts to push the boy into a more active love life had all been to increase his desire to protect the village and such become a better Hokage.

The Godaime Hokage stopped at the door containing her successor and the woman who would have been his wife and true love. She wished she was going to war.

Her knuckles rasped on the door. "Who is it?" a woman's voice?

"Tsunade."

"Come in baa-chan," Naruto answered. Tsunade did as she was bade and saw Temari was the one who opened the door. The blonde had obviously been crying and had just recently stopped. She sniffed a little as Tsunade went to the bed.

Naruto was sitting with his back to the door once more, bent just slightly. He seemed smaller, more from his lack of energy or attitude. Ino was awake and holding Naruto's hand. She was pale and sweating. A tube was in her mouth to drain any excess blood from her throat to stop her from choking on it. Tsunade felt something hit her in the chest as Ino's hitched with each struggling breath.

The pain she must be feeling was incredible.

"Hey Tsunade," Naruto whispered. He said it so the words rhymed. "What's up?"

Tsunade felt something hot sting her eyes, she blinked them away, "I came here to tell you-"

"Don't say it…I-I I know it's gonna happen. But I don't want anyone to _say it out loud!_" he sobbed, pushing his face into Ino's body, which was covered by the sheets. She looked at him and stroked his hair with her free hand.

Tsunade couldn't look anymore. She turned her head away and suddenly noticed the plants on the bed stand. She narrowed her eyes and walked to it, being slow and steady as if it would attack her. Her hand reached out and touched the petals. When she pushed a bit of chakra into the plant it gave off a short glow, which quickly dispersed.

"NARUTO!" she cried, causing Ino to grunt form the sound.

"Wh-what?" he asked sniffing looking at her.

"What is this plant? Is it what I think it is?!"

"A yellow Ice Dragon's Breath…yeah why?"

"Where did you get them?"

"I grew them…"

"You have more?"

"Ino-chan does. They're all in her house. Why do you want to know, Tsunade?"

Tsunade dashed out of the room and crashed into the nurse who was bringing Ino her food. "AH! TSUNADE-SAMA! I'm so-"

"SHUT-UP!" Tsunade roared back. "Listen to me! Get Shizune! Tell her to come to Yamanaka Ino's room at once!" The nurse blinked at her. "GO WOMAN!"

"AH! HAI!" the girl squeaked before running off.

"Tsunade…what's going on?" Naruto asked, standing now. He did not let go of Ino's hand.

Tsunade turned to look at Naruto, she was smiling and tears of joy were streaming down her cheeks. "You've just saved her Naruto."

The face he took was similar to when Iruka tried to explain things about mathematics to him, "Whaaa?"

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The mixture, was once the yellow of the flower petals, was now a goopy green color as Tsunade continued to add nasty smelling spices and at one point, a newt.

"So this will cure Ino-chan how?" Naruto asked, very skeptical.

"The petals of the Ice Dragon's breath are dark in color to draw sunlight to them. When the sunlight hits them they take as much energy from the rays as they need and let the rest filter through to the ground. In areas where it is icy the concentrated heat from the petals causes the ice to melt and thus the plant gets water.

"_However_ the yellow plants have lighter color and therefore don't draw as much sunlight. They are considered an unwanted mutation and would wholly be ignored if not so rare. Medic-ninja all over the continent search for them despite this."

"Why?" Temari asked.

"Because of the same reason they are ineffective in gathering water on their own. The petals instead of filtering the light they need _retain_ it. In short trapping the sunlight's energy within them. When charged with the chakra that normally flows through a person's body it causes a short burst of energy to be released.

"My mentor's mentor devised a way to direct this energy to heal someone when put into a salve or lotion. Healing things like skin cancer and leprosy, normally deadly diseases, that were made all but harmless."

"So you're making a potion to…"

"Use the same technique we tried earlier, but on a localized scale. Send all of that healing chakra straight into Ino's stomach after drinking the potion. This way we heal her stomach from the _inside_," Tsunade said smiling in a rather brilliant 'I just cured cancer _and_ the common cold' way.

"I see…do I have to get painted on again. That one medic guy was looking at me funny…"

"Naruto she was a woman…"

Naruto had a very large sweat drop form on his temple. "Well…uh…she's very…" Naruto decided to shut up.

"No I'll be doing it. I'll just redirect the chakra from the Sōzō Saisei (7) to the seal I'll draw on her stomach," Tsunade explained.

"But Tsunade-baachan. You'll get all wrinkly and your boobs won't be jiggly anymore."

"MY BREASTS ARE NOT _JIGGLY_!" she screamed slamming her hand on the table, and there by demonstrating they _are_ and quite a bit so. She blushed and pulled her coat tightly around her cleavage. "Shut up and leave me alone!"

Naruto gave her a good natured grin and kissed her forehead, "Thank you Tsunade-baachan. I know how much you hate looking old. I can't thank you enough."

"You don't have to thank me Naruto. It's my duty as Hokage and as a medic to do everything I can, despite what I may look like until I rest," Tsunade and Naruto shared a very similar smile before Naruto turned to be with Ino. "But if I wa to ask for something in return…"

Naruto turned to look at her.

"Get me some grandkids," deadpanned the older woman.

Naruto winced a little before laughing, a genuine smile on his face. He nodded. "Sure. I'll ask Ino-chan after her life is saved from a deadly jutsu."

Naruto and Temari left to watch over Ino.

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The two blondes were pushed out by Tsunade, who didn't want them to see her just after the use of the technique. Naruto guessed she had a soldier pill or two to help her sustain the illusion of her youth until she could get back to her home and rest.

Naruto was leaning back in his chair with his arms behind his head. Temari was sitting in a similar fashion except her legs were crossed and her hands were resting on her knees.

"Are you really going to marry her?" Temari asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yep…"

"Gonna have little blonde hyperactive babies?"

"At least a dozen."

Temari looked at him like he was crazy. "Have you talked to her about that?"

"Yeah…_she_," he threw his thumb in the direction of the door, "wanted fifteen."

"Really?"

"Yep…" he said as he scratched his cheek. "Not even _I_ have that much stamina."

There was silence once more.

Suddenly a lanky man shape dashed past them with a bundle of arrows in one hand and a bow in the other. "STOP! COME BACK!" a collection of Konoha hospital guards ran after him.

"I'm trying to _help_ you! Damn leaf-heads! A NUE IS OVER YOUR HEADS AS WE SPEAK! Give me two hours and it's dead!"

"STOP HIM!"

"DAMN YOU! I HOPE CATERPILLARS GNAW ON YOUR BRAINS!"

"Was that your fault?" Naruto asked pointing in the direction of the fleeing neurotic.

"Yep…"

"Neat."

The door opened. Naruto and Temari stood. Tsunade's smiling face appeared before them and she stepped out of the way. Temari noticed that she looked older but not _as_ old as she was.

"Naruto…she's awake."

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

The End...

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

* * *

A/N: sorry about that little rant at the beginning of this chapter. But what i said was true. It was because of an insensitive review like that, that caused one of my favorite fictions to be taken off because its author was insulted so strongly.I personally prefer to be called a fucking idiot to my face than for it to be insinuated. 

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed this story and reviewed with actual enjoyment. For those of your who like this story I may to a sequel.

Thanks again...

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

**Dictionary:**

**Xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxxX**

1 (Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu): False Sleep Technique. The same technique Gaara used to allow the Shukaku to take over. Forces the subject to sleep. The kind Sakura uses induces a 'sleeping beauty' state of suspended animation.

2 (Shosen no Jutsu): Heavenly Palm Technique: the basic and omni functional healing technique of all medic ninja.

3 (Nue): Japanese Chimera. Thought to be a sign of misfortune and illness. Was killed in a story by a samurai's arrow.

4 (Angst Position): Sitting with your knees drawn up to your chest and your face buried in your arms.

5 (Kitsune-teme): Bastard Fox.

6 (Shitsume no Kai): Release of Death's Claw.

7 (Sozo Saisei): Genesis Rebirth. Tsunade's ultimate Healing jutsu.**  
**


End file.
